LIBRARY 


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CALi' 


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PUBLICATIONS 


OF  THE 


STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OF 
WISCONSIN 


EDITED  BY 


MILO  M.  QUAIFE 


SUPERINTENDENT  OF  THE  SOCIETY 


WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  PUBLICATIONS 

STUDIES 

VOLUME  I 


PUBLICATIONS  OF  THE  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 
OF  WISCONSIN 


STUDIES,  VOLUME  I 


ECONOMIC    HISTORY    OF 

WISCONSIN  DURING  THE 

CIVIL  WAR  DECADE 


BY 
FREDERICK  MERK 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SOCIETY 
MADISON,  1916 


COPYRIGHT,  1916 

BY  THE 

STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OF  WISCONSIN 


1250  COPIES  PRINTED 


CANTWELL  PRINTING  CO..  MADISON,  STATE  PRINTER 


CONTENTS 

Page 

Editor 

's  Introduction       ...... 

9 

Autho 

r's  Preface     ....... 

11 

Chapter: 

I. 

Agriculture           ..... 

15 

II. 

Lumbering  ...... 

59 

III. 

Lumbering  ...... 

90 

IV. 

Mining         ...... 

111 

V. 

Manufacturing     ..... 

123 

VI. 

Labor           ...... 

158 

VII. 

Banking       ...... 

187 

VIII. 

Trade           ...... 

220 

IX. 

Railroad  Farm  Mortgages 

.     238 

X. 

Railroad  Construction  .... 

.     271 

XI. 

Railroad  Consolidation 

.     289 

XII. 

The  Antimonopoly  Revolt     . 

.     308 

XIII. 

The  Genesis  of  Railroad  Regulation 

.     329 

XIV. 

Commerce  of  the  Upper  Mississippi 

.     344 

XV. 

Commerce  of  the  Great  Lakes 

.     363 

Index 

.     392 

[5 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Page 
Wisconsin    in    1865:     Map    Prepared    by    the 

Author  for  this  Work         ....     Frontispiece 

Chester  Hazen,  Pioneer  Wisconsin  Dairyman  .  22 

A  Log  Jam  in  the  Chippewa  Falls  Boom  in  1869. 
From  a  Photograph  in  the  Wisconsin  His- 
torical Library  ......  68 

Lumber  Rafts  on  the  Chippewa.  From  a  Photo- 
graph in  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Library     .  .  82 

Running  the  Kilbourn  Dam.  From  a  Photo- 
graph in  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Library   .  .  96 

The  First  Typewriter.  Invented  by  C.  L. 
Sholes,  and  now  owned  by  the  Buffalo  His- 
torical Society  .  .  .  .  .  .  156 

Wisconsin  Bank  Notes  in  use  during  the  Civil 
War.  Originals  in  the  Wisconsin  Historical 
Museum 188 

Wisconsin  Shinplasters  in  Use  during  the  Civil 
War.  Originals  in  the  Wisconsin  Historical 
Museum  .......         232 

Certificate  of  Stock  Issued  to  Railroad  Farm 
Mortgagor.  Original  in  the  Wisconsin  His- 
torical Museum        ......         242 

Alexander  Mitchell 290 

A    Memorial    Urging    Railroad     Regulations. 

Original  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Library      .  .         332 

[7] 


8  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

An  Upper  Mississippi  River  Steamboat  of  the 
Civil  War  Period.  From  a  Photograph  in  the 
Wisconsin  Historical  Library      ....         346 

Commodore    William    F.     Davidson.       From 

Photograph  Loaned  by  Captain  Fred  A.  Bill  .         354 

Freight  Rate  on  a  Bushel  of  Wheat  by  Lake 
from  Chicago  or  Milwaukee  to  Buffalo. 
Graph  Plotted  by  the  Author     ....         382 


EDITOR'S  Introduction 


The  study  in  Wisconsin  history  contained  in  the 
present  volume  was  initiated  several  years  ago  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Wisconsin  History  Commission. 
That  Commission  was  always  closely  identified  with 
the  State  Historical  Society,  the  superintendent  of 
the  Society  being  a  member  of  the  Commission  and 
the  editor  of  its  publications,  and  all  of  the  activities 
of  the  Commission  being  carried  on  in  the  Library 
building  under  the  direction  of  the  office  and  re- 
search staff  of  the  Society.  When,  therefore,  the 
existence  of  the  History  Commission  terminated  at 
the  close  of  the  year  1914  and  the  prosecution  of 
its  work  devolved  upon  the  Historical  Society,  no 
noticeable  break  in  the  administration  occurred. 
The  present  work  constitutes  the  last  and  at  the 
same  time  the  most  important  enterprise  begun 
by  the  History  Commission. 

In  publishing  it  the  State  Historical  Society  initi- 
ates a  new  series  of  Studies  in  Wisconsin  and  western 
history.  In  earlier  years  the  Society's  volumes  of 
Collections  were  given  over  to  the  publication  alike 
of  source  material  and  of  secondary  narratives  and 
studies.  For  many  years,  however,  their  pages  have 
been  confined  to  the  publication  of  source  material 
alone.  In  its  annual  volume  of  Proceedings  the 
Society  still  continues  to  publish  a  number  of  shorter 
secondary  studies  each  year,  and  it  is  expected  that 

[91 


10  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

the  publication  of  still  a  new  series  for  the  issuance 
of  such  studies  will  be  begun  shortly.  Nevertheless, 
the  present  volume  is  the  first  wholly  secondary 
study  long  enough  to  constitute  a  considerable  book 
to  be  issued  by  the  Society.  The  time  seems  oppor- 
tune, therefore,  to  initiate  with  its  publication  a 
series  of  such  studies,  the  number  of  volumes  of 
which  will,  it  is  hoped,  steadily  increase  with  the 
passing  of  the  years. 

In  the  present  volume,  it  is  believed,  a  high  stand- 
ard of  scholarly  achievement  has  been  set.  The 
author  has  spared  no  labor  or  pains  to  produce  a 
really  noteworthy  study  in  the  somewhat  difficult 
field  to  which  he  has  set  his  hand.  At  the  threshold 
of  his  scholarly  career,  the  prediction  may  not  im- 
prudently be  made  that  the  future  will  witness  the 
development  by  him  of  other  and  still  better  studies 
in  the  field  of  American  history. 

Acknowledgments  are  due  Lydia  M.  Brauer, 
editorial  assistant,  and  Annie  A.  Nunns,  assistant 
superintendent  of  the  Society,  for  devoting  expert 
knowledge  and  painstaking  care  to  the  preparation 
of  the  manuscript  for  the  press  and  to  supervising 
its  publication. 

Milo  M.  Quaife 

Madison,  Wisconsin 


AUTHOR'S  Preface 


As  an  industrial  community  Wisconsin  during  the 
Civil  War  was  typical  of  the  Northwest.  In  all  its 
important  aspects  her  economic  life  reflected  that 
of  the  states  adjoining  her  borders.  Agriculturally 
her  development  found  its  counterpart  in  Minnesota 
and  Iowa;  her  lumber  industry  repeated  that  of 
Michigan  and  Minnesota;  her  lead  mining  was  a  dup- 
lication of  what  obtained  in  the  region  about  Galena 
and  Dubuque.  Milwaukee  paralleled  Chicago.  In 
trade,  commerce,  and  railroad  expansion  the  metropo- 
lis of  Wisconsin  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  its 
great  southern  rival.  Upon  the  Mississippi,  La  Crosse 
occupied  a  commercial  position  similar  to  those  of 
St.  Paul  and  Dunleith.  Nearly  all  the  industrial 
interests  of  the  region  west  of  Lake  Michigan  were 
represented  in  some  degree  in  the  Badger  State. 
The  account  which  follows,  therefore,  typifies  the 
history  of  the  larger  economic  unit — the  area  later 
known  as  the  Granger  Northwest — of  which  Wis- 
consin was  but  a  part. 

Industrial  changes  work  themselves  out  only  with 
the  lapse  of  decades.  To  attempt  to  chronicle  eco- 
nomic progress  during  the  brief  span  of  four  or  five 
years  must  always  prove  unsatisfactory.  History 
is  a  stream  of  events.  To  cut  across  it  arbitrarily  is 
to  record  developments  but  barely  begun,  or  only 
partially  completed,  or  just  come  to  a  close.  However 

\  11  1 


12  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

profoundly  the  Civil  War  afTected  the  economic  life 
of  the  State  and  nation,  the  historian  who  reviews  it 
should  not,  it  seems  to  me,  limit  his  discussion  to 
the  four  years  in  which  the  armies  of  the  North  and 
the  South  were  clashing  on  the  battlefield.  If  he 
does,  his  picture  will  be  but  a  static,  panoramic 
view,  and  not,  as  it  should  be,  a  moving  film  of 
events.  My  design  in  this  volume  has  been  to  limit 
myself  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  period  of  the 
Civil  War.  Yet  when  it  has  seemed  desirable  I  have 
not  hesitated  to  range  over  the  entire  period  between 
the  two  years  of  financial  crisis,  1857  and  1873. 
Developments  brought  to  a  close  during  the  war  I 
have  attempted  to  trace  to  their  origin;  changes  be- 
gun during  the  war  I  have  briefly  carried  either  to 
their  conclusion  or  to  the  point  at  which  it  has 
seemed  profitable  to  leave  them.  Thus  the  indus- 
trial history  of  Wisconsin  during  the  war  has  been 
placed  in  what  has  seemed  to  me  to  be  its  proper 
setting. 

The  historical  sources  for  this  volume  have  been 
scattering,  often  fragmentary.  The  generation  of 
the  Civil  War  was  less  interested  in  preserving 
records  of  its  industrial  than  of  its  military  achieve- 
ments. Newspaper  files  necessarily  constituted  the 
chief  source  of  information.  Fortunately,  the  great 
newspaper  collection  of  the  State  Historical  Society 
of  Wisconsin  was  at  my  constant  disposal.  Reports 
of  boards  of  trade  and  publications  of  similar  in- 
dustrial associations  were  useful  as  repositories  of 
statistical  information.  Legislative  journals,  local 
laws,  and  court  proceedings  likewise  yielded  much 
valuable   data.      To   manuscript   materials,   on   the 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE  13 

other  hand,  I  had  only  limited  access.  From  local 
histories  and  personal  interviews  some  help  was 
obtained,  but  was  accepted  only  when  it  could  be 
corroborated  by  other  testimony. 

Much  of  the  ground  covered  in  this  volume  is 
broken  for  the  first  time.  The  field  has  been  surveyed 
nationally  several  times,  but  never,  so  far  as  I  know, 
intensively  for  a  single  state.  Whatever  errors  of 
fact  or  of  judgment  the  future  discloses  in  this  work 
will  find  in  this  fact  at  least  partial  extenuation. 

I  am  under  heavy  obligations  to  Dr.  M.  M.  Quaife, 
superintendent  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of 
Wisconsin,  who  with  great  care  has  read  and  cor- 
rected my  manuscript.  My  thanks  are  due  also  to 
Dr.  Carl  Russell  Fish  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin, 
who  has  read  a  number  of  the  chapters,  and  has 
given  valuable  suggestions  for  improving  them. 
Finally,  I  am  deeply  indebted  for  the  national  back- 
ground of  this  book  to  J.  F.  Rhodes'  History  of  the 
United  States,  and  E.  D.  Fite's  Social  and  Industrial 
Conditions  in  the  North  During  the  Civil  War. 

Frederick  Merk 

Madison,  Wisconsin 


CHAPTER  1 
AGRICULTURE 

The  80,000  boys  in  blue,  sent  by  Wisconsin  to 
southern  battle-fields  during  the  Civil  War,  consti- 
tuted but  one  of  the  armies  that  the  State  conse- 
crated to  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  At  home 
another  army  toiled  in  field  and  workshop,  rendering 
less  thrilling  but  not  less  important  service  to  the 
imperiled  cause  of  the  national  government.  The 
men  and  women  who  made  up  this  army  of  peace, 
stimulated  by  much  the  same  spirit  that  moved  the 
soldiers  at  the  front,  wrought  with  ever  increasing 
productiveness  to  supply  the  food  and  clothing  that 
maintained  the  Federal  forces.  The  material  de- 
velopment of  the  State  continued  throughout  the 
war  almost  as  if  no  gigantic  military  struggle  were 
going  on. 

Wisconsin  was  young  among  the  great  agricultural 
commonwealths  of  the  Union.  She  was  one  of  the 
group  of  northwestern  states  which  but  a  decade 
prior  to  the  war  had  wrested  from  the  older  sections 
of  the  East  their  supremacy  in  the  production  of 
wheat.  During  the  war  she  produced  for  exportation 
larger  crops  of  wheat  than  ever  before  in  her  history. 
Her  surplus  fed  the  armies  battling  at  the  front  and 
the  mill  operatives  toiling  in  New  England,  and 
entered  conspicuously  into  the  commerce  of  drought- 

f  15  1 


16  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

stricken  England  and  France.^  During  the  dark 
days  of  1862,  when  these  countries  seemed  about  to 
intervene  on  behalf  of  the  Confederacy,  this  food 
supply  exerted  an  undoubted  influence  in  holding 
them  to  neutrality. 2 

The  State  gloried  in  the  new  importance  of  its 
agricultural  products.  Its  sentiments  were  expressed 
by  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel  in  a  triumphant  editorial 
published  early  in  the  war  under  the  caption  "A 
Greater  than  King  Cotton."  "The  flocculent  monarch 
no  longer  commands  the  world.  Just  now  BreadstufTs 
have  the  throne.  Shut  up  by  an  iron  blockade,  the 
textile  scepter  no  longer  sways.  But  there  is  going 
forward  to  foreign  markets  from  the  loyal  states  the 
greatest  quantity  and  greatest  value  of  crop  export 
this,  or  any  other  country  has  ever  seen.  Wheat  is 
king,  and  Wisconsin  is  the  center  of  the  Empire."^ 

Wheat  was  truly  king  in  Wisconsin.  The  decade 
opened  with  the  greatest  crop  in  the  history  of  the 
State.  The  stored-up  fertility  of  three  previous  short 
years,  1856,  1858,  and  1859,  seemed  to  have  crowded 
itself  under  unusually  favorable  conditions  into  this 
one  extraordinary  harvest.  Between  27,000,000  and 
29,000,000  bushels  were  garnered,  almost  twice  the 

^  In  1864  J.  C.  Kennedy,  superintendent  of  the  eighth  census  declared: 
"There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  West,  directly  or  indirectly,  is  the  source 
of  all  the  wheat  that  is  exported  from  the  United  States,  and  this  in  addi- 
tion to  supplying  New  England  with  breadstufTs."  U.  S.  Census,  1860, 
Introduction  to  agricultural  statistics,  p.  xliii. 

*See  Emerson  D.  Fite,  Social  and  Industrial  Conditions  in  the  North 
During  the  Civil  War  (N.  Y.,  1910),  17-21. 

^  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Nov.  8,  1861.  The  same  sentiment  was  expressed 
in  a  memorial  sent  by  citizens  of  Milwaukee  to  Congress  late  in  1861: 
"Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  power  of  Cotton  as  influencing  the  conduct 
of  Foreign  Nations  towards  us,  the  power  of  food  (which,  in  times  of 
famine,  can  be  furnished  by  the  Northwest  alone,)  is  still  greater." 


AGRICULTURE  17 

amount  of  any  previous  yield.  In  addition  to  the 
immensity  of  the  crop,  prices  during  the  early  months 
of  autumn  ruled  high,  higher  indeed  than  at  any 
corresponding  time  since  the  panic  of  1857.  Every- 
where the  industrial  depression  which  had  been 
hanging  over  the  State  lightened,  and  indications 
pointed  to  an  era  of  unprecedented  prosperity. 

Under  such  circumstances  the  presidential  election 
of  1860  approached.  Some  weeks  before  the  canvass 
closed  it  became  evident  that  Lincoln  would  be 
elected.  The  disaffected  in  the  South  openly  threat- 
ened that  such  a  choice  would  be  followed  by  seces- 
sion, and  war  clouds  gathered  ominously  over  the 
nation.  The  bonds  and  stocks  of  southern  and 
border  states,  which  as  will  be  seen  in  a  succeeding 
chapter  formed  the  basis  for  most  of  the  currency 
of  Wisconsin,  declined  sharply  in  value,  carrying 
with  them  into  discredit  a  large  part  of  the  money 
necessary  to  move  the  crop.  No  farmer  with  hard 
wheat  in  his  bins  would  exchange  it,  if  he  could 
possibly  hold  off,  for  bank  notes  that  might  over 
night  become  worthless.  The  price  of  wheat,  too, 
came  tumbling  down  as  the  prospect  of  the  closing 
of  southern  markets  against  northern  grain  became 
more  certain.  From  94  cents  per  bushel  at  the  be- 
ginning of  August  it  sank  by  the  close  of  navigation 
in  December  to  65  cents. ^ 

The  situation  steadily  became  worse  during  the 
spring  of  1861  as  the  nation  helplessly  drifted  into 
civil  war.  With  the  price  of  wheat  ruling  20  to  30 
cents  lower  per  bushel  than  during  the  previous  year^ 

1  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1860,  22. 
»/rf.,  1861,  11-12. 


18  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

and  payment  in  currency  that  was  daily  depre- 
ciating in  value,  the  discouraged  farmers  found 
their  anticipated  profits  from  the  fme  crop  of  1860 
rapidly  vanishing.  On  April  12  the  Confederate 
batteries  opened  fire  on  Fort  Sumter.  A  sharp 
financial  panic  at  once  swept  over  the  State.  The 
banking  system,  undermined  by  previous  months  of 
strain,  collapsed  with  a  crash.  The  wildcat  currency 
which  was  held  largely  by  the  agricultural  classes 
sank  to  50  cents  on  the  dollar,^  and  business  every- 
where came  to  an  abrupt  standstill.  The  brief  period 
of  prosperity  was  over. 

The  crop  of  1861  yielded  excellent  returns,^  but 
prices  remained  low,  and  depression  continued  un- 
abated throughout  the  ensuing  winter  and  spring.' 
The  summer  of  1862,  however,  marked  a  turning 
point  in  the  industrial  situation  as  it  did  likewise  in 
the  affairs  of  the  national  government.  Though  the 
yield  of  wheat  was  somewhat  unsatisfactory,  prices 
rose,  as  the  result  of  greenback  inflation  and  of  crop 
shortages  in  Europe,  at  just  the  time  when  the  grain 
was  ready  for  market.  In  1863  nature  once  more 
responded  generously  to  the  efforts  of  the  agri- 
culturist," while  prices  continued  to  rise  as  heavy 
issues  of  greenbacks  followed  one  another  and  the 

^  See  post,  chap.  vii. 

*  Wisconsin  State  Agricultural  Society,  Transactions,  1861-68,  33,  83. 

'During  the  week  before  Christmas,  1861,  when  it  seemed  that  the 
United  States  would  become  involved  in  war  with  England  over  the 
Trent  alTair,  the  price  of  wheat  sank  abruptly  on  the  Milwaukee  Exchange 
from  75  cents  per  bushel  to  68  cents.  "We  are  informed,"  observed  the 
Milwaukee  Daily  Wisconsin  on  Dec.  23,  1861,  "that  our  farmers,  under 
the  apprehension  of  a  war  with  England,  have  been  rushing  in  their  grain 
[to  Milwaukee]  and  selling  at  the  ruling  very  low  prices." 

« Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1861-68,  33. 


AGRICULTURE  19 

demands  of  the  Federal  government  for  its  armies 
continued  to  increase. 

Drought  and  chinch  bugs  almost  ruined  the  crop  of 
1864.  Prices,  too,  as  a  result  of  Federal  reverses  in  the 
South,  fluctuated  during  the  year  with  a  violence  never 
before  known.  In  July,  1864  the  valueofwheatin  depre- 
ciated greenbacks  was  $2.26  per  bushel  in  the  Milwaukee 
market,^  almost  three  times  the  amount  which  it  had 
brought  during  the  same  month  three  years  before. 
Upon  the  return  of  peace  in  the  spring  of  1865  the  price 
slumped  for  a  short  time;  it  recovered,  however,  in 
1866,  and  by  May,  1867it  reached  the  highestpointever 
attained  in  the  history  of  the  State,  $2.96  per  bushel. ^ 

During  the  five  crucial  years  from  1860  to  1865 
Wisconsin  produced  approximately  100,000,000 
bushels  of  wheat, ^  of  which  probably  two-thirds  was 
exported.  In  1860  she  ranked  second  among  the 
great  wheat-producing  states  of  the  Union,  being 
surpassed  in  that  year  only  by  her  southern  neighbor, 
Illinois.  Until  the  close  of  the  decade,  with  but  few 
intervals,  she  maintained  this  high  position  in  the 
ranks  of  the  wheat-producing  states  of  the  nation. 

Wheat  completely  dominated  Wisconsin  agriculture ; 
other  grains  were  raised  only  in  sufTicient  quantity  to 
supply  local  needs.  During  the  five  years  from  1860  to 
1865  the  State  produced  not  more  than  45,000,000 
bushels  of  corn,  75,000,000  bushels  of  oats,  4,500,000 
bushels  of  rye,  and  4,000,000  bushels  of  barley." 

'  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1864,  14. 

«/(/.,  1867,  18. 

*U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Agriculture,  Reports,  1862-65;  Wis.  Agric. 
Soc,  Trans.,  1860-68;  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Reports,  1860-65. 

*  Ibid.;  U.  S.  Comr.  of  Agric,  Reports,  1862-65;  Wis.  Agric.  Soc, 
Trans.,  1860-68. 


20  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Sheep  husbandry  was  a  branch  of  agriculture 
which  enjoyed  unusual  prosperity  during  the  Civil 
War.  Wool  was  at  a  premium.  Not  only  was  it 
needed  to  replace  southern  cotton  in  northern  homes 
but  to  supply  the  enormous  demands  of  the  Federal 
government  for  army  cloth.  The  coarser  fleeces  were 
in  especial  demand,  for  they  entered  conspicuously 
into  the  manufacture  of  soldiers'  uniforms.  The 
Wisconsin  grades,  which  were  of  this  character,  rose 
in  value  from  25  cents  per  pound  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war  to  the  unprecedented  height  of  $1.05  in  the 
fall  of  1864.1 

In  the  southern  and  eastern  counties  of  the  State, 
where  wheat,  owing  to  soil  exhaustion,  no  longer 
adequately  repaid  the  labor  of  the  farmer,  this 
stimulus  to  wool  raising  came  as  a  blessing.  It  was 
here  that  the  industry  assumed  its  first  and  greatest 
importance.  The  Wisconsin  Wool  Growers'  Asso- 
ciation, organized  at  Janesville  in  September,  1864^ 
for  the  discussion  of  trade  matters  and  protective 
tariff  legislation,  was  one  of  the  numerous  manifesta- 
tions of  this  development.  County  associations  of  the 
same  nature  flourished  in  all  the  surrounding  region. 
The  wool  product  of  the  State  rose  from  approxi- 
mately 1,000,000  pounds  in  1860^  to  4,000,000 
pounds  in  1865,^  a  more  than  fourfold  increase  in  five 

^  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1861,  16-17;  id.,  1864, 
29-30.  Common  wool  was  in  especial  demand  since  army  cloth  was 
manufactured  almost  exclusively  from  it.  Its  price  during  the  war  was 
but  little  less  than  that  paid  for  fine  grades. 

2  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Oct.  6,  1864;  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1861-68, 
501-2. 

3  U.  S.  Census,  1860,  Agriculture,  167;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  1,  1861. 
<The  Chicago  Tribune  of  May  1,  1866,  in  a  carefully  prepared  article 

on  the  wool  industry  of  the  Northwest,  estimated  the  wool  product  of 


AGRICULTURE  21 

years.  The  number  of  sheep  in  the  State  increased  in 
the  same  proportion  from  332,954  in  I86OH0 1,260,900 
attheend  of  1865.2  Optimistic  growers,  encouraged  by 
this  rapid  progress,  predicted  that  at  no  distant  date 
Wisconsin  would  rival  Ohio  in  the  wool  industry. 

Unhappily,  with  the  return  of  peace  this  hope 
vanished.  During  the  entire  season  of  1865  the  price 
of  wool  ranged  at  scarcely  half  the  level  of  the  previ- 
ous year.  Nor  was  the  slump  merely  temporary  as  in 
the  case  of  wheat.  On  the  contrary,  as  southern 
cotton  fields  once  more  became  productive,  the 
market  value  of  wool  continued  to  decline.  Between 
1864  and  1867  the  price  of  Wisconsin  grades  fell 
from  $1.05  to  29  cents  per  pound. ^  Despite  this 
discouragement  Wisconsin  farmers  continued  to  main- 
tain their  flocks.  The  impulse  given  to  the  industry 
during  the  war  and  the  capacity  it  disclosed  of 
thriving  on  worn-out  wheat  fields  were  sufficient  to 
sustain  it.  The  wool  product  of  the  State  in  1868  was 
about  4,500,000  pounds;''  in  1872,  approximately 
the  same.^    The  industry  held  its  own,  but  little  more. 

Wisconsin  for  1865  at  5,000,000  pounds.  This  estimate  appears,  however, 
to  have  been  somewhat  high. 

1  U.  S.  Census,  1860,  Agric,  166. 

^  U.  S.  Comr.  of  Agric,  Report,  1865,  68.  The  shipment  of  wool  from 
Milwaukee,  nearly  all  of  which  was  produced  in  Wisconsin,  increased 
from  669,375  pounds  in  1860  to  1,000,225  pounds  in  the  first  year  of  the 
war  and  2,277,850  pounds  in  1865.  Altogether  Milwaukee  exported, 
during  the  years  from  1860  to  1865,  8,610,411  pounds  of  common  wool. 

3  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1867,  39.  In  response  to 
a  memorial  of  the  Wisconsin  Wool  Growers'  Association  the  State  legisla- 
ture in  1869  adopted  a  joint  resolution  requesting  Congress  to  raise  the 
tariff  on  raw  wool  to  10  cents  per  pound  plus  10  per  cent  ad  valorem. 

*  Id.,  1868,  51.  It  was  estimated  that  in  1868  Wisconsin  and  Minne- 
sota together  produced  5,000,000  pounds  of  wool,  of  which  Minnesota 
produced  approximately  500,000. 

^  Id.,  1872,  79. 


22  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Another  interest,  however,  was  now  attracting 
the  attention  of  many  farmers  in  southern  and  eastern 
Wisconsin.  This  was  dairying,  and  in  particular  the 
manufacture  of  cheese.  Until  near  the  close  of  the 
war  this  industry  had  been  carried  on,  by  those  who 
engaged  in  it  at  all,  merely  as  a  diversion  from  the 
serious  business  of  wheat  raising.  Each  farmer 
maintained  his  own  primitive  kitchen  dairying  es- 
tablishment in  which  the  wife  and  children  churned 
the  butter  and  manufactured  the  cheese  for  the 
family  table  or  the  irregular  local  trade.  Cheese  was 
still  largely  imported  from  New  York;  butter  was 
exported  only  in  limited  quantities.^ 

However,  the  unprofitableness  of  wheat  raising  in 
the  exhausted  fields  of  eastern  and  southern  Wis- 
consin and  the  high  prices  paid  for  cheese  during 
the  closing  years  of  the  Civil  War  were  factors  in- 
fluential enough  to  bring  about  a  desired  change. 
Enterprising  farmers  throughout  this  region  now 
heeded  the  oft-repeated  advice  of  their  agricultural 
journals  to  "substitute  the  cow  for  the  plow."  At 
the  same  time  there  was  introduced  into  the  State 
the  highly  important  American  factory  system  of 
associated  dairying.  To  the  dairy  industry  of  Wis- 
consin this  meant  what  the  cotton  gin  had  meant  to 
the  plantations  of  the  South  and  the  reaper  to  the 
wheat  fields  of  the  West.  Inaugurated  in  New  York 
in  1851,  by  1860  it  had  revolutionized  the  processes 
of  dairying  in  that  greatest  of  dairy  states.  In  1864 
it    invaded    Wisconsin,    when    Chester    Hazen,    an 

^  Milwaukee  exported  butter  for  the  first  time  in  1858.  In  1861  ship- 
ments from  that  city  amounted  to  637,706  pounds,  in  1865  to  1,263,740 
pounds. 


CHESTER  HAZEN 
Pioneer  Wisconsin  Dairyman 


AGRICULTURE  23 

enterprising  immigrant  from  the  Empire  State,  es- 
tablished at  Ladoga,  in  Fond  du  Lac  County,  the  first 
cheese  factory  built  in  Wisconsin.^  So  far  superior 
were  the  factory  methods,  whereby  the  milkings  of 
an  entire  neighborhood  were  thrown  together  and 
the  whole  manufactured  into  cheese  or  butter  by  an 
expert,  to  the  old  private  dairying  methods  that 
by  the  end  of  the  Civil  War  thirty  cheese  factories 
were  already  in  successful  operation  in  Wisconsin, 
chiefly  in  Kenosha  and  other  southeastern  counties. ^ 
By  the  end  of  the  decade  more  than  a  hundred  were 
in  business  in  the  State. ^  The  amount  of  cheese  which 

^  It  should  be  noted  in  this  connection  that  the  definition  of  a  cheese 
factory  is  more  or  less  arbitrary.  It  is  not  easy  to  say  with  precision 
what  a  factory  is,  or  just  when  a  private  dairying  establishment  may 
be  said  to  have  ceased  to  be  such  and  developed  into  a  cheese  factory. 
During  the  fifties  many  Wisconsin  farmers  manufactured  butter  and  cheese 
in  cooperation;  instead  of  conducting  their  dairying  individually,  four  or 
five  neighbors  would  bring  their  milk  to  some  one  of  the  group  who  would 
carry  on  the  manufacture  of  butter  and  cheese  for  the  entire  group.  Such 
cooperation  as  this  approximates  the  factory  system  of  production,  but 
does  not  in  itself  constitute  it.  The  manufacturing  families  are  producing 
butter  and  cheese  as  a  side  line  to  their  main  occupation,  which  is  the 
regular  pursuit  of  agriculture.  In  other  words,  the  procedure  under 
discussion  constitutes  only  the  household  stage  of  the  dairy  industry. 
The  factory  system  may  be  said  to  have  been  reached  only  when  some 
individual  agrees  to  take  the  milkings  of  so  large  a  number  of  cows  (usually 
regarded  as  about  100)  as  to  necessitate  giving  all,  or  at  least  the  major 
portion,  of  his  time  and  attention  to  cheese  manufacture.  The  first  example 
of  such  an  enterprise  in  Wisconsin  was  afforded  by  Chester  Hazen  in  1864. 

2  The  earlier  factories  were  usually  cooperative  in  form,  the  farmers 
who  owned  them  and  produced  milk  for  them  merely  hiring  expert  cheese- 
makers  at  a  salary  to  operate  them.  Later  factories  came  to  be  privately 
owned,  the  farmer  paying  the  cheese-maker  a  stipulated  price  per  pound 
for  manufacturing  and  marketing  the  products  of  his  milk.  The  modern 
practice,  whereby  the  factory  owner  buys  the  milk  which  he  uses  and  as- 
sumes the  risks  of  marketing  his  cheese,  was  also  coming  into  vogue  in  the 
early  seventies. 

3  Estimate  of  W.  D.  Hoard,  Northwestern  Dairymen's  Association, 
Report,  1873,  66. 


24  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

they  and  the  private  dairies  in  Wisconsin  produced 
increased  from  1,104,300  pounds  in  1860^  to  approxi- 
mately 6,000,000  pounds  in  1871, ^  and  to  almost 
10,000,000  pounds  in  1873.^ 

The  production  of  butter  by  the  factory  or  cream- 
ery plan  secured  a  less  rapid  hold  in  Wisconsin.  In 
Illinois,  where  in  1870  the  first  creamery  in  the  North- 
west was  established  at  Elgin, ^  this  branch  of  the 
dairy  industry  attained  large  proportions.  Wisconsin 
dairymen  from  the  beginning,  however,  specialized 
in  cheese,  leaving  butter  chiefly  to  the  province  of 
the  private  dairy.  The  output  of  dairy  butter  in  the 
State  increased  from  13,611,328  pounds  in  1860  to 
22,473,036  pounds  in  1870. 

Wisconsin  was  well  adapted  to  the  dairy  industry 
by  reason  of  her  favorable  climate,  her  excellent 
grasses,  and  pure  water.  She  was  favored  also  by  a 
social  factor,  the  character  of  the  immigrants  who 
early  settled  within  her  borders.  From  New  York 
came  the  descendants  of  pioneer  English  dairymen, 
who  introduced  into  the  Lake  counties,  the  Fox 
River  Valley,  and  the  southern  counties,  the  art  of 
making  the  English  cheddar  cheese.  From  the 
mountain  cantons  of  Switzerland  came  the  hardy 
Swiss,  traditional  experts  in  cheese  manufacture,  who 
introduced  into  the  northern  hills  of  Green  and  the 
surrounding  counties,  the  making  of  Swiss  and  Lim- 
burg   "kase."^      When   to   the   natural   aptitude   of 

1  U.  S.  Census,  1860,  Agric,  168. 

«  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1870,  55-58;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  7, 1871. 

'  Estimate  of  W.  D.  Hoard,  Wisconsin  Dairymen's  Association,  Report, 
1874,  13. 

*  Northwestern  Dairymen's  Assn.,  Report,  1880,  29. 

^  Green  County  led  the  State  in  cheese  manufacture  in  1870,  its  product 
being  chiefly  of  the  Swiss  and  the  Limburg  variety.    Its  358,830  pounds 


AGRICULTURE  25 

these  immigrant  dairymen  were  added  the  efficient 
methods  of  factory  production,  success  was  already 

half  won. 

Several  obstacles,  however,  stood  in  the  way  of 
progress.     Chief  among  these  was  the  evil  repute  of 
western    dairy    products    in    the    eastern    markets. 
Wisconsin  dairymen  were  obliged  in  the  beginning  to 
submit  to  the  humiliation  of  concealing  the  identity 
of  their  cheeses,  while  their  butter  was  contemptuous- 
ly quoted  on  eastern  exchanges  as  "Western  grease." 
In  order  to  win  a  market  it  was  necessary  to  lift  the 
quality  of  the  Wisconsin  product  conspicuously  above 
that  of  surrounding  states,^  a  difficult  task  of  educa- 
tion and  cooperation.     Fortunately  for  the  State,  a 
number  of  earnest  and  public-spirited  leaders  were 
ready  to  devote  their  energies  to  it.    W.  D.  Hoard, 
the  great  dairy  editor^  and  the  future  governor  of  the 
State,    Stephen   Faville,    an   early   president   of   the 
Northwestern      Dairymen's      Association,      Chester 
Hazen,  the  first  president  of  the  Wisconsin  Dairy- 
men's Association   and  one  of  the  greatest  cheese- 
were,  however,  produced  chiefly  in  private  dairies,  the  factory  system 
having  spread  slowly  among  the  Swss  dairymen.     By  tradition,  habit, 
and  pride  the  foreign    cheese-makers  were  individualistic,  and  not  until 
1870  was  the  first  factory  established  in  Green  County.    Much  interesting 
data  concerning  the  rise  of  the  Swiss-cheese  industry  in  Wisconsin  may  be 
found  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  VIII,  411-45;  id.,  XII,  335-82; 
Wisconsin  Historical  Society,  Proceedings,  1899,  226-30;  Wis.  Dairymen's 
Assn    Report,  1881,  50-54;  id.,  1908,  167-75;  Wisconsin  Cheese  Makers' 
Association,  Report,  1902,  63-70;  id.,  1908,  182-88;  id.,  1911,  52-54. 

1  In  1866  was  enacted  the  first  dairy  law  passed  in  Wisconsin,  "An  act 
to  prevent  fraud  in  the  manufacture  of  cheese."  Wisconsin  General 
Laws,  1866,  chap.  6. 

2  In  1870,  W.  D.  Hoard  established  at  Lake  Mills  the  Jefferson  County 
Union,  a  weekly  devoted  to  the  improvement  of  Wisconsin  dair>ang.  It 
is  the  best  existing  source  of  information  for  the  early  history  of  the  sub- 
ject. Hoard's  Dairyman  was  founded  fifteen  years  later  as  the  dairy  edition 
of  the  Union. 


26  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

makers  in  the  Northwest,  Hiram  Smith,  A.  D.  De- 
Land,  Charles  R.  Beach,  Robert  Houston,  and  others 
scarcely  less  noteworthy  led  the  way  in  the  effort 
of  Wisconsin  to  win  recognition. 

Concerted  action,  which  was  essential  to  the  im- 
provement of  the  cheese  and  butter  product  of  Wis- 
consin, could  be  secured  only  by  the  organization  of 
dairymen's  associations.  The  initial  step  toward  this 
end  was  taken  on  Mar.  6,  1867,  when  a  convention 
of  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  dairymen  was  called  to- 
gether at  Rockford,  Illinois,  where  the  Illinois  and 
Wisconsin  Dairymen's  Association  was  formed,  the 
first  such  organization  to  be  established  west  of  Lake 
Michigan. 1  In  1869  it  developed  into  the  present 
Northwestern  Dairymen's  Association,  in  whose  de- 
liberations Wisconsin  cheese-makers  took  prominent 
part.  Within  the  State  the  first  dairymen's  association 
to  be  organized  was  that  of  Fond  du  Lac  County,  estab- 
lished at  Brandon  on  Jan.  15,  1870. ^  Two  years  later, 
on  Feb.  15,  1872,  the  present  Wisconsin  Dairymen's 
Association  was  organized  at  Watertown,  an  event 
full  of  significance  in  the  dairy  history  of  the  State. ^ 

»  Chicago  Times,  Mar.  8,  1867. 

2  Brandon  Times,  Jan.  19,  1870.  The  association  was  organized  under 
the  leadership  of  Chester  Hazen,  who  was  its  first  president.  The  Jefferson 
County  Dairymen's  Association  followed  soon  after. 

'Watertown  Democrat,  Feb.  22,  1872;  Jefferson  Co.  Union,  January  to 
March,  1872.  One  of  the  purposes  of  the  organization  was  declared  by 
Stephen  Faville  to  be  the  securing  of  "some  united  action  with  regard  to 
the  marketing  of  dairy  products.  As  the  matter  now  stands,  the  producers 
of  butter  and  cheese  were  at  the  mercy  of  a  disorganized  market,  or  at 
least  what  organization  existed  was  against  rather  than  for  them."  For 
additional  data  concerning  the  early  history  of  the  Association  see  Wis. 
Dairymen's  Assn.,  Reports,  1879,  121-29;  1900,  10-16;  1903,  15-22;  1905, 
60-65;  1906,  168-76;  1911,  140-44.  See  also  Wis.  Cheese  Makers'  Assn., 
Report,  1901,  16-19;  id.,  1908,  178-81. 


AGRICULTURE  27 

These  and  similar  associations  subsequently  or- 
ganized were  able,  by  discussion,  investigation,  and 
cooperation,  to  bring  about  a  rapid  improvement  in 
the  quality  of  the  dairy  products  of  the  State.  Care- 
less and  ignorant  methods  gave  way  to  the  scientific 
procedure  and  expert  skill  of  the  factory.  Before  the 
end  of  the  seventies  Wisconsin  was  carrying  away  at 
eastern  dairy  exhibitions  coveted  prizes,  which  had 
hitherto  uniformly  gone  to  New  York  and  Ohio. 
Wisconsin  dairymen  no  longer  found  it  necessary  to 
parade  their  cheese  as  "New  Hamburg"  or  "New 
York  Factory";  they  now  rested  securely  upon  the 
reputation  of  their  own  brands. 

The  concerted  efforts  of  dairymen's  associations 
likewise  made  possible  a  close  study  of  marketing 
methods  and  conditions.  This  was  a  matter  of  es- 
pecial importance  to  Wisconsin  dairymen  in  the 
early  seventies.  Until  1872  Wisconsin  cheese  exports 
had  been  manufactured  almost  exclusively  for  the 
consumption  of  the  West  and  the  Southwest.  So 
rapid  had  been  the  development  of  the  dairy  in- 
dustry in  the  Northwest,  however,  that  these  markets 
no  longer  sufTiced.  Each  summer  in  the  markets  of 
Chicago  and  St.  Louis  the  supply  was  greater  than 
the  demand,  and  as  a  consequence  prices  declined  to 
a  point  that  precluded  profit.  "We  must  make  our 
cheese,  like  our  flour,  for  the  markets  of  the  world," 
was  the  lesson  which  this  condition  enforced  upon 
Wisconsin  dairymen.^ 

The  cheese  that  was  suitable  for  the  western  trade, 
however,  was  unsuited  to  the  requirements  of  the 

1  The  best  source  of  information  concerning  the  marketing  problems  of 
Wisconsin  cheese-makers  at  this  time  is  the  Jefferson  Co.  Union. 


28  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

East  and  Europe.  The  West  demanded  a  large,  soft, 
and  slightly  colored  variety;  the  eastern  and  English 
markets  wished  a  brand  of  smaller  size,  of  finer  and 
firmer  texture,  and  more  color.  The  soft  cheese  was 
open  to  other  objections  besides  its  limited  market. 
Dairymen  had  not  yet  learned  the  secret  of  manu- 
facturing a  product  that  would  keep  without  deteri- 
oration during  the  hot  summer  months,  and  the  soft 
variety  in  particular  was  likely  to  become  strong  and 
spoil.  It  was  the  practice  of  Wisconsin  and  other 
dairymen  to  rush  to  market  without  delay  all  the 
cheese  made  during  June,  July,  and  part  of  August, 
with  the  obvious  result  that  prices  were  regularly 
depressed  during  the  summer  season. 

During  the  summer  of  1871  conditions  were 
particularly  bad,^  and  it  was  chiefly  as  a  means  of 
escape  from  them  that  the  Wisconsin  Dairymen's 
Association  was  organized  early  in  1872.  The  ad- 
vantages of  cooperative  effort  were  quickly  demon- 
strated. From  addresses  and  exchanges  of  opinion 
at  the  regular  conventions  the  dairymen  of  the 
State  acquired  information  about  such  important 
trade  matters  as  the  variety  of  shapes,  sizes,  texture, 
coloring,  and  packing  of  cheese  demanded  by  the 
home  and  foreign  markets.  It  was  no  mere  coinci- 
dence that  Wisconsin  cheese-makers  first  successfully 
invaded  the  East  within  a  few  years  after  the  Asso- 
ciation was  organized. 

One  of  the  first  steps  of  the  Association  was  to 
organize  at  Watertown  in  February,  1872  a  dairy 
board  of  trade  patterned    after  that  of  Little  Falls, 

^  Good  Wisconsin  cheese  sold  during  the  summer  of  1871  for  as  low  as 
8  cents  a  pound. 


AGRICULTURE  29 

New  York.^  Its  purpose  was  to  maintain  regular 
dairy  market  days,  at  which  cheese  producers  and 
wholesale  dealers  could  meet  for  the  purpose  of 
buying  and  selling.  Its  success  was  immediate,  and 
it  was  speedily  followed  by  others  at  Kenosha  and 
Sheboygan  Falls.  Wisconsin  dairymen  were  enabled 
thus  to  establish  direct  relations  with  eastern  and 
English  markets,  and  gradually  to  shake  olT  the  Chicago 
middlemen  who  had  hitherto  dominated  the  industry. 
Successful  shipment  for  long  distances  of  a  perish- 
able commodity  like  cheese  depended  upon  swift 
transportation  and  a  minimum  of  handling.  Fortu- 
nately for  the  dairymen  of  Wisconsin  these  were 
secured  during  the  later  sixties  by  the  organization  of 
through-freight  lines,  which  carried  consignments 
from  western  producers  to  eastern  consumers  in 
guaranteed  time  and  without  change  of  cars.^  Quite 
as  important  were  the  perfection  and  successful 
employment  of  refrigerator  cars  for  the  first  time 
in  1871  or  1872,  just  when  the  Badger  dairy  farmers 
were  in  a  position  to  make  extensive  use  of  them.^ 
A  few  months  after  the  Wisconsin  Dairymen's 
Association  was  organized,  its  representative  was 
able  to  procure  from  a  prominent  transportation 
company  the  new  and  highly  important  refrigerator 
service,  as  well  as  rates  of  freight  so  favorable  that 
Wisconsin  cheese  could  be  shipped  to  London  or 
Liverpool  for  but  little  more  than  the  New  York 
product.^     Wisconsin    dairymen,    who    enjoyed     an 

^  Jefferson  Co.  Union,  for  the  year  1872. 
2  See  post,  383-87. 

'  Chicago  Prairie  Farmer,  June  22,  1872;  Jefferson  Co.  Union,  July  19, 
1872. 
*  For  an  interesting  account  of  how  these  concessions  were  secured  by 


30  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

important  advantage  over  their  New  York  rivals 
by  reason  of  the  relative  cheapness  of  their  lands, 
were  now  in  a  position  to  compete  with  them  on  at 
least  equal  terms.  Today,  after  the  lapse  of  scarcely 
half  a  century,  Wisconsin  ranks  as  the  greatest 
dairy  state  of  the  Union. 

A  number  of  interesting  experiments  were  tried  in 
Wisconsin  as  a  result  of  the  war,  some  of  which  were 
destined  to  affect  significantly  the  future  agricul- 
tural development  of  the  State.  Sugar  cane  and  flax, 
which  before  the  war  had  received  but  slight  attention 
at  the  hands  of  the  farmers,  were  taken  up  with  new 
interest  when  war  suddenly  cut  off  the  southern 
supply.  Sugar  cane  of  two  varieties,  Chinese  imphee 
and  African  sorghum,  had  been  introduced  into  the 
State  by  the  State  Agricultural  Society  as  early  as 
1857.^  Its  culture  had  not  been  entirely  satisfactory, 
however,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  only 
a  few  hundred  farmers  were  raising  the  new  plant. 
Even  these,  moreover,  commonly  produced  only 
sufficient  cane  to  supply  their  own  family  table  with 
molasses. 

In  January,  1861,  Alexander  Randall,  the  far- 
sighted  governor  of  Wisconsin,  urged  the  legislature, 
"in    view    of    the    probable    difficulties    which    may 

W.  D.  Hoard  as  the  representative  of  the  Wisconsin  Dairymen's  Associa- 
tion and  the  Watertown  Dairy  Board  of  Trade  see  Wis.  Dairymen's 
Assn.,  Report,  1900,  12-13;  id.,  1903,  17-19;  Jefferson  Co.  Union,  July  5, 
1872;  Northwestern  Dairymen's  Assn.,  Report,  1873,  66-70;  Wis.  Agric. 
Soc,  Trans.,  1872,  35-36,  90;  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report, 
1872,  34.  For  freight  rates  prior  to  1872  see  Jefferson  Co.  Union,  Jan.  27, 
1871  and  Feb.  23,  1872. 

1  Wisconsin  was  one  of  the  first  states  in  the  Union  to  experiment  with 
sorghum. 


AGRICULTURE  31 

embroil  the  States  of  the  Union,"  to  establish  special 
premiums  for  the  further  encouragement  of  the 
growth  of  sugar  cane.^  His  recommendations  were 
disregarded  in  the  excitement  of  the  year,  but  the 
unusual  price  to  which  sugar  rose  following  the  open- 
ing of  hostilities,  soon  furnished  sufTicient  stimulus 
to  stir  the  farmers  of  southern  and  eastern  Wisconsin 
to  action.  Sorghum  culture  became  the  subject  of 
interested  discussion  and  experimentation  through- 
out the  region.  In  1863  and  for  a  number  of  years 
thereafter  State  sorghum  conventions  annually  as- 
sembled at  Madison,  the  center  of  sorghum  culture 
in  Wisconsin,  and  a  monthly  paper  devoted  to  the 
new  crop,  the  Northwestern  Sorgho  Journal,  was 
established  there  in  1865.  At  every  State  and  county 
agricultural  fair  enthusiastic  sorghum  growers  ex- 
hibited their  toothsome  products,  while  manufac- 
turers of  rival  cane  crushers  and  syrup  evaporators 
gave  practical  demonstrations  before  interested 
crowds  of  the  art  of  preparing  the  syrup  from  the 
cane.^ 

Each  year  during  the  war  the  number  of  acres 
planted  to  sorghum  revealed  an  increase  over  the 
acreage  of  the  preceding  year,  and  the  hope  was 
entertained  by  many  well-informed  citizens  that 
Wisconsin  would  some  day  be  independent  of  foreign 
sources  for  its  supply  of  sugar  and  syrup. ^  In  the 
census  year  of  1860  but  19,854  gallons  of  sorghum 

^  Wisconsin  Governor's  Message  and  Accompanying  Documents  (Madison, 
1861),  13-14. 

2  See  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1861-68,  238-39,  for  a  description  of  the 
sorghum  exhibition  at  the  State  Fair  in  1865. 

^  Ibid.,  101.  Some  attempts  were  made  in  Wisconsin  to  manufacture 
sorghum  flour  from  the  seed  of  the  cane. 


32  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

syrup  were  produced  within  the  State. ^  In  1863  this 
amount  had  risen  to  600,000  gallons,  if  we  may  trust 
an  estimate  made  by  Secretary  0.  S.  Willey  at  the 
convention  of  1864, ^  and  in  1866,  the  year  when  the 
sorghum  fever  reached  its  height,  nearly  1,000,000 
gallons  were  reported  as  the  product  of  the  State.^ 
"It  is  safe  to  assume,"  wrote  the  secretary  of  the 
State  Agricultural  Society  in  his  report  for  1868, 
"that  in  1866  the  value  of  the  product  considerably 
exceeded  half  a  million  of  dollars.  *  *  *  At  that  time 
hundreds  of  fields  in  every  section  of  the  State  greeted 
the  eye  of  the  traveler  with  the  pleasing  spectacle  of 
this  luxuriant  crop,  lifting  its  millions  of  plume-like 
panicles  rejoicingly  in  the  autumn  sun.  On  every 
hand  groaned  and  creaked  the  crowded  mill,  and 
upward  curled  the  cloud  of  vapor  and  smoke  as 
incense  to  Ceres  for  this,  her  latest  and  most  wonder- 
ful gift."4 

Despite  such  apparent  success,  however,  it  was 
impossible  to  escape  the  fact  that  the  Wisconsin 
summer  was  too  short  fully  to  ripen  the  cane.  In 
favorable  seasons  it  matured  sufficiently  to  permit  of 
the  manufacture  of  excellent  molasses,  but  never 
sufficiently  to  produce  sugar.  Both  during  and  after 
the  conclusion  of  the  war  the  State  Agricultural 
Society  persistently  offered  a  handsome  premium  for 
ten  pounds  of  dry  sorghum  sugar  made  within  the 
State,  but  the  prize  was  never  awarded.''  When  sugar 
prices  again  fell  to  normal,  the  conviction — strongly 

1  U.  S.  Census,  1860,  Agric,  169. 

2E.  W.  Skinner,  Sorgho  Hand  Book  (Madison,  1864),  13. 

*  Wisconsin  Farmer,  1866,  119. 
«Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1861-68,  35. 

*  Ibid.,  36. 


AGRICULTURE  33 

rebutted  during  the  war — that  Wisconsin  lay  too  far 
north  for  successful  sugar-cane  production  gained 
ground.  In  the  lower  latitudes  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Il- 
linois, and  Missouri  sorghum  continued  to  flourish, 
but  in  Wisconsin  it  practically  disappeared  when  the 
war-time  emergency  passed. 

A  new  sugar  plant,  however,  the  sugar  beet,  seemed 
to  hold  out  better  prospects.  It  had  long  been  suc- 
cessfully cultivated  in  Central  Europe,  but  until  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War  had  almost  entirely  escaped  the 
notice  of  American  agriculturists.  In  Wisconsin  a 
vague  project  for  an  experimental  beet-sugar  farm  and 
refinery  was  under  consideration  in  Oconto  County 
as  early  as  1863. ^  Not  until  1868,  however,  were  any 
real  experiments  made.  In  the  spring  of  that  year 
two  enterprising  German  immigrants,  one  of  whom 
had  been  employed  in  the  Fatherland  for  many  years 
as  foreman  in  a  beet-sugar  refinery,  rented  a  tract 
of  land  near  the  city  of  Fond  du  Lac  and  planted  it 
to  sugar  beets.  Such  time  as  they  could  spare  during 
the  summer  was  devoted  to  the  erection  of  a  primi- 
tive though  complete  sugar  refinery.  By  1869  they 
were  manufacturing  sugar  at  the  rate  of  1,000  pounds 
per  day,2  a  feat  which  enabled  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel 
to  boast  early  in  1870  that  Wisconsin  was  producing 
more  beet  sugar  than  all  the  other  states  of  the 
Union  combined.^  It  was  one  of  the  earliest  attempts 
at  beet-sugar  manufacture  in  the  United  States  and 

1  La  Crosse  Democratic  Journal,  Aug.  12,  1863. 

2  This  account  is  constructed  from  random  items  gathered  from  the 
Fond  du  Lac  Saturday  Reporter,  1868-71;  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1861- 
71;  U.  S.  Comr.  of  Agric,  Report,  1869,  349-50.  Late  in  1869  the  proprie- 
tors became  discouraged  and  removed  their  works  to  California. 

3  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  11,  1870. 


34  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

as  such  received  wide  notice  throughout  the  North- 
west. Other  companies  were  induced  to  follow  the 
example  thus  set,  and  between  the  years  1869  and 
1871  approximately  a  dozen  beet-sugar  companies 
were  organized  in  the  southern  and  eastern  counties 
of  the  State. ^  The  most  successful  of  these,  the 
First  Sauk  County  Farmers'  Association  for  the 
Fabrication  of  Beet  Sugar,  an  interesting  company  of 
some  fifty  German  farmers,  which  had  secured  the 
services  of  a  German  expert,  manufactured  in  1871 
as  much  as  134,400  pounds  of  beet  sugar  and  72,350 
pounds  of  molasses. - 

In  spite  of  every  effort,  however,  it  was  impossible 
to  compete  successfully  with  the  cheaper  and  better 
southern  product,  and  after  one  or  two  years  of 
discouragement  all  these  pioneer  companies  dis- 
appeared. Yet  they  served  a  useful  purpose,  for  they 
demonstrated  that  the  soil  and  climate  of  Wisconsin 
were  well  adapted  to  the  growth  of  the  root.  A 
quarter  of  a  century  later  Wisconsin  made  a  second 
attempt,  this  time  to  persevere,  until  today  she  ranks 
well  up  among  the  great  beet-sugar  states  of  the  Union. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  disappearance  of 
southern  cotton  from  northern  markets  during  the 
war  stimulated  the  wool  industry  in  Wisconsin.  It 
likewise  stimulated  flax,  a  crop  which  prior  to  the 
war  had  been  steadily  declining  in  importance  not 
only  in  Wisconsin  but  throughout  the  country.    The 

1  In  1870  the  State  legislature  in  order  to  encourage  the  manufacture  of 
beet  sugar  in  the  State  passed  an  act  which  exempted  from  taxation  for  a 
period  of  ten  years  all  property  and  capital  stock  engaged  in  beet-sugar 
refining.     Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1870,  chap.  62. 

2  For  additional  data  concerning  this  and  other  early  beet-sugar  projects 
in  Wisconsin  see  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1861-68,  388;  1869,  27,  223; 
1870,  25;  1871,  350. 


AGRICULTURE  35 

decline  had  been  due  in  part  to  the  immense  develop- 
ment of  cotton  during  the  decade  of  the  fifties;  in  a 
measure,  also,  to  the  expense  of  converting  the  raw  flax 
into  linen.  During  the  war  the  North  turned  eagerly  to 
the  task  of  cheapening  the  processes  of  linen  manufac- 
ture. Large  premiums  were  ofTered  in  several  eastern 
states  for  the  discovery  of  methods  whereby  flax  fiber 
could  easily  be  spun  on  cotton  machinery,  and  in 
1863  Congress  appropriated  $20,000  to  this  end.^ 

Governor  Randall  of  Wisconsin,  who  confidently 
believed  that  these  efforts  to  "cottonize  flax,"  as  the 
process  was  called,  w^ould  soon  be  successful,  urged 
the  State  legislature  in  1861  to  encourage  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  crop  by  offering  special  premiums.^ 
His  recommendation  bore  no  fruit,  but  in  1863  the 
farmers  of  the  State  spontaneously  took  up  the  work. 
In  1864  a  number  of  prominent  corporations,  nota- 
bly the  New  York  and  De  Pere  Flax  Company,  and 
the  Northwestern  Flax  Company  of  Chicago,  sent 
agents  throughout  the  southern  and  eastern  counties 
distributing  free  seed  and  contracting  for  the  crop 
which  the  farmers  agreed  to  raise.  Enough  flax  was 
soon  produced  to  justify  the  erection  of  several  linen 
factories  and  linseed-oil  mills,  and  the  new  industry 
seemed  to  flourish.  However,  no  substantial  progress 
was  made  in  the  art  of  cottonizing  flax,  the  expense 
of  manufacturing  linen  remained  prohibitive,  and 
when  southern  cotton  again  appeared  on  the  market 
flax  culture  suffered  a  decline. 

Strangely  enough  the  war  gave  almost  no  impetus 
to   the  cultivation   of  tobacco  in   Wisconsin.      The 

1  Id.,  1870,  28-33. 

2  Wis.  Mess,  and  Docs.,  1861,  13-14. 


36  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

tobacco  plant  had  originally  been  introduced  into 
the  State  during  the  early  territorial  days.  To  its 
present  favorite  abode  in  the  rich  limestone  fields 
of  Dane  and  Rock  counties  it  came  somewhat  later. 
It  was  brought  thither  by  immigrants  from  the 
tobacco  districts  of  Ohio  in  1853.^  Nowhere,  how- 
ever, had  it  been  able  to  secure  a  substantial  footing. 
Wheat  was  the  all-absorbing  interest,  and  tobacco 
was  raised,  where  raised  at  all,  only  in  quantities 
sufficient  to  supply  home  requirements.  Some  few 
farmers,  it  is  true,  particularly  immigrants  from  the 
tobacco  regions  of  Connecticut  and  Ohio,  were 
encouraged  during  the  war  to  take  up  the  new  crop, 
and  the  product  of  the  State  increased  from  87,595 
pounds  in  1860^  to  162,891  pounds  in  1865.^ 

Toward  the  close  of  the  sixties  the  farmers  of 
southeastern  Wisconsin  were  forced  by  the  bitter 
experience  of  continuous  short  crops  to  abandon  the 
old  ruinous  policy  of  unrotated  wheat.  The  price  of 
tobacco  at  the  same  time  increased,  after  a  heavy 
decline  in  1865,  to  approximately  18  cents  per  pound 
by  1868,^  and  now  for  the  first  time  Wisconsin  farmers 
turned  their  attention  seriously  to  it.  In  1870,  960,813 
pounds  were  produced,  almost  all  of  it  in  Rock  and 
Dane  counties.^ 

1  Ralph  and  Orrin  Pomeroy  and  J.  R.  Hiestand  are  usually  credited 
with  introducing  tobacco  into  Wisconsin.  While  they  were  by  no  means 
the  first  white  men  to  raise  tobacco  in  the  State,  they  were  probably  the 
first  to  raise  it  in  the  present  tobacco  region  and  the  first  to  make  it  a  major 
farm  interest.  University  of  Wisconsin,  Bulletin,  No.  101  (Madison, 
1904),  155-75;  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1870,  364. 

2U.  S.  Census,  1860,  Agric,  167. 

3  U.  S.  Comr.  of  Agric,  Report,  1865,  55. 

*  University  of  Wisconsin,  Bulletin,  No.  101,  175. 

6U.  S.  Census,  1870,  III,  282. 


AGRICULTURE  37 

The  Norwegians,  who  predominated  in  the  tobacco 
region,  soon  acquired  from  their  American  neighbors 
the  art  of  tobacco  culture.  They  proved  to  be  well 
adapted  to  the  industry,  for  not  only  were  they 
industrious  and  painstaking,  but  they  w^ere  able  to 
employ  in  the  light  work  involved  in  tobacco  raising 
the  large  families  with  which  immigrants  were 
always  blessed.  To  this  day  Scandinavians  are  the 
chief  tobacco  growers  of  the  State. 

Wisconsin  tobacco  was  almost  exclusively  of  the 
variety  used  for  the  manufacture  of  cigars  and  known 
to  the  trade  as  seed  leaf.  At  first  considered  inferior, 
it  soon  came  to  be  ranked  with  Connecticut  tobacco 
for  cigar-wrapping  purposes.  Edgerton,  in  Rock 
County,  early  assumed  importance  as  a  tobacco 
center  and  continued  to  grow  until  it  is  now  one  of 
the  greatest  primary  cigar-wTapper  markets  in  the 
country. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  episode  in  the  agri- 
cultural history  of  the  period  is  the  hop  craze  which 
swept  over  the  State  during  the  years  between  1864 
and  1870.  The  hop  vine  seems  originally  to  have  been 
brought  to  Wisconsin  by  pioneers  from  the  great 
hop  districts  of  the  Empire  State.  Like  tobacco, 
however,  its  early  efforts  to  secure  a  footing  in  com- 
petition with  wheat  were  attended  with  little  suc- 
cess. In  1860  the  product  of  the  State  was  but 
135,587  pounds.^  During  the  war  a  slight  improve- 
ment took  place.  A  discriminatory  tax  on  w^iisky 
and  the  development  of  a  new  taste  for  lager  beer  in 
the  United  States  stimulated  the  numerous  breweries 
of  Wisconsin  to  increase  largely  their  output.     As  a 

i/rf.,  I860,  Agric,  168. 


38  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

result  the  hop  growers  of  the  State  found  a  profitable 
market  for  their  crop  at  their  very  doors.  The  de- 
velopment of  the  industry  under  such  influences  was 
gradual  and  healthy. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  war,  however,  a  new  factor 
entered.  In  New  York  and  other  eastern  hop  centers 
the  louse,  a  traditional  enemy  of  the  vine,  swept 
over  the  fields,  and  for  a  succession  of  years  the 
eastern  crops  were  almost  ruined.  Prices  as  a  result 
went  soaring.  In  the  fall  of  1861  the  best  Wisconsin 
grades  ranged  in  the  New  Y'ork  market  at  from  15 
to  25  cents  per  pound  ;^  by  1865  they  were  50  to  65 
cents  per  pound, ^  and  in  1867,  55  to  70  cents  per 
pound. ^ 

The  profits  held  out  to  hop  growers  by  such  prices 
were  extraordinary.  In  1865  numbers  of  growers  in 
Sauk  County  were  said  to  have  realized  from  their 
crop  $800  to  $1,200  per  acre,  and  one  farmer  was 
reported  to  have  sold  the  product  of  fifteen-sixteenths 
of  an  acre  for  $1,600.^  In  1867  the  Wisconsin  State 
Journal  contained  an  account  of  a  farmer  who  was 
reported  to  have  raised  on  a  single  acre  3,100  pounds 
of  hops  worth  58^  cents  per  pound. ^  "Cases  are 
numerous,"  declared  the  secretary  of  the  State 
Agricultural  Society  in  1868,  "in  which  the  first  crop 
has  paid  for  the  land  and  all  the  improvements; 
leaving  subsequent  crops  a  clear  profit,  minus  the 
cost  of  cultivation  and  harvesting."^  The  Milwaukee 

'  New  York  Herald,  1861,  market  quotations. 
'^  Id.,  1865,  market  quotations. 
^  Id.,  1867,  market  quotations. 

*  Dodge  County  Citizen,  Nov.  16,  1865. 

*  Wisconsin  State  Journal,  Dec.  6,  1867. 
•Wis.  Agric.  Soc.,  Trans.,  1861-68,  37. 


AGRICULTURE  39 

Sentinel  in  1867  estimated  that  of  $2,000,000  paid 
to  the  hop  growers  of  Sauk  County  during  the  year, 
$1,500,000  was  clear  profit.^ 

Whether  or  not  such  accounts  were  true,  and  they 
were  no  doubt  highly  exaggerated,  their  effect  was 
the  same  upon  the  popular  mind.  Hop  growing 
developed  into  a  veritable  craze.  "Gathering  re- 
newed force  with  every  new  acre  planted  in  the  county 
of  Sauk,  where  it  may  be  said  to  have  originated, 
and  where  the  crop  of  1865  was  over  half  a  million 
of  pounds,  it  spread  from  neighborhood  to  neighbor- 
hood, and  from  county  to  county,  until  by  1867  it 
had  hopped  the  whole  State  over;  so  completely 
revolutionizing  the  agriculture  of  some  sections  that 
one  in  passing  through  them  found  some  difTiculty  in 
convincing  himself  that  he  was  not  really  in  old  Kent, 
of  England. "2  In  1867  the  product  of  the  State  was 
between  6,000,000  and  7,000,000  pounds,  valued  at 
$4,200,000;^  by  the  next  year  it  had  leaped  almost  to 
11,000,000  pounds."  Sauk  County  alone  produced 
in  1867  upon  2,548  acres  of  land  approximately 
4,000,000  pounds,  or  one-fifth  of  all  the  hops  raised 
in  the  entire  country,^  and  the  next  year,  upon  a  more 
than  doubled  acreage,  her  product  was  even  larger. 
In  1867  Kilbourn,  in  Sauk  County,  the  chief  shipping 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Nov.  13,  1867. 

2  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1861-68,  37. 

^Baraboo  Republic,  Dec.  11,  1867.  This  weekly  paper,  published  in 
the  heart  of  the  hop  district,  is  the  best  source  of  information  concerning 
the  hop  episode.  In  the  interests  of  the  hop-growers  it  probably  under- 
stated rather  than  overstated  the  annual  crop.  See  also  Milwaukee 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1867,  47. 

^Baraboo  Republic,  July  22,  1868;  Emmet  Well's  Weekly  Hop  Circular, 
Aug.  1,  1868,  printed  in  Baraboo  Republic,  Aug.  5,  1868;  Milwaukee 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1868,  57-58. 

5  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Nov.  13,  1867. 


40  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

center  of  the  Wisconsin  hop  district,  ranked,  accord- 
ing to  the  Wisconsin  Mirror,  as  "the  greatest  primary 
hop  depot  in  the  United  States — perhaps  in  the 
world. "1 

Harvest  time  in  the  hop  district  was  a  season  of 
unusual  and  picturesque  animation.  Far  and  near 
from  the  surrounding  country  girls  and  women  of 
every  class  and  condition,  in  response  to  the  call  for 
pickers,  streamed  into  the  hop  gardens.  "The  rail- 
road companies  are  utterly  unable  to  furnish  cars  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  countless  throngs  who 
daily  fmd  their  way  to  the  depots  *  *  *  to  take  the 
cars  for  the  hop  fields.  Every  passenger  car  is  pressed 
into  service,  and  freight  and  platform  cars  are  fixed 
up  as  well  as  possible  for  the  transportation  of  the 
pickers.  Every  train  has  the  appearance  of  an  ex- 
cursion train,  on  some  great  gala  day,  loaded  down  as 
they  are  with  the  myriads  of  bright-faced,  young 
girls  *  *  *."2 

In  1868  the  Wisconsin  Mirror  estimated  that 
30,000  girls  were  at  work  picking  hops  in  the  region 
tributary  to  Kilbourn,  of  whom  20,000  had  been 
brought  in  from  outside.^  "Truly  Hops  are  King, 
and  in  this  region  30,000  Queens  are  waiting  on  the 
old  fellow."^ 

The  girls,  in  addition  to  receiving  their  board,  were 
ordinarily  paid  at  the  rate  of  50  cents  per  ten-pound 
box,  a  rate  which  permitted  industrious  workers  to 
earn  readily  from  $1.75  to  $2.25  a  day.  Nor  were 
wages  the  only  attraction.    The  picking  season  was 

1  Wisconsin  Mirror,  June  17,  1868. 
^  Wisconsin  State  Register,  Aug.  29,  1868. 
»  Wis.  Mirror,  Aug.  12  and  Sept.  2,  1868. 
*  Ibid.,  Sept.  2,  1868. 


AGRICULTURE  41 

a  time  of  feasting  and  merrymaking.  Each  night 
when  darkness  put  an  end  to  labor,  the  well-used 
fiddle  was  fetched  from  its  case,  and  to  its  merry 
strains,  under  the  mellow  autumn  moon  the  un- 
wearied tripped  the  jovial  steps  of  the  hop  dance. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  inventive  Yankee  mind 
was  at  work  upon  the  problem  of  substituting  ma- 
chinery for  the  costly  labor  of  the  pickers.  In  1868 
the  Baraboo  Republic  listed  nine  such  machines 
invented  during  the  year  by  men  residing  in  the 
Wisconsin  hop  region.^  None  of  these  mechanical 
hop  pickers,  however,  was  ever  successful,  though 
great  things  were  predicted  for  them. 

The  magnificent  profits  realized  by  hop  growers 
were  usually  as  royally  spent.  If  one  may  credit  the 
tales  still  told  in  Sauk  and  adjoining  counties,  farmers' 
daughters  rustled  in  silks  and  satins,  purchased 
pianos,  and  visited  foreign  courts,  while  sons  ex- 
changed overalls  for  broadcloth  and  sported  blooded 
horses  and  fancy  phaetons.  Hop  growers,  who  at 
first  proceeded  cautiously,  soon  threw  discretion  to 
the  winds  and  sank  not  only  their  profits,  but  as 
much  more  as  they  could  raise  on  credit,  into  the 
purchase  of  more  acres  and  the  poling  of  more  yards. 
No  words  of  warning  or  advice  could  at  such  a  time 
gain  a  hearing.  Even  the  farsighted,  who  realized 
that  a  crash  must  inevitably  come,  took  a  gambler's 
chance  of  winning  before  luck  changed. 

The  change  came  sooner  and  more  disastrously 
than  even  the  worst  fears  anticipated.  In  1868, 
owing  to  an  unfavorable  growing  season  and  the 
inroads  of  the  recently  arrived  louse,   the  average 

1  Baraboo  Republic,  July  22  and  29,  1868. 


42  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

yield  of  Wisconsin  yards  sank  from  1,400  to  800  or 
900  pounds  per  acre,^  while  the  quality  of  much  of 
the  crop  was  inferior.  Yet  even  this  was  but  the  be- 
ginning of  the  misfortune.  No  sooner  did  the  new 
hops  begin  to  move  than  it  became  evident  that  the 
bottom  had  dropped  out  of  the  market.  The  eastern 
growers,  having  successfully  banished  the  louse,  had 
again  produced  a  normal  crop.  The  necessity  for 
the  Wisconsin  product  had  disappeared  at  just  the 
time  when  the  output  had  increased,  in  spite  of  the 
small  yield  per  acre,  to  almost  11,000,000  pounds. 
The  blackest  predictions  were  fulfilled;  the  New 
York  market  was  hopelessly  glutted. 

Prices  swiftly  declined.  The  growers  who  first  sent 
their  crop  to  market  were  fortunate  to  receive  from 
25  to  35  cents  per  pound  for  it,  though  they  bitterly 
protested  at  the  time  that  they  were  being  robbed. 
As  the  season  advanced,  prices  sank  lower  and  lower, 
until  at  length  hops  became  practically  unsalable. 
It  is  probable  that  the  average  price  realized  by  the 
growers  did  not  exceed  10  cents  per  pound,  or  a  trifle 
over  half  the  cost  of  production. ^  A  large  part  of  the 
crop  was  held  over  until  the  next  year  in  the  hope 
that  the  situation  might  improve,  but  ultimately  it 
had  to  be  sold  at  from  3  to  5  cents  per  pound. ^ 

Some  growers  courageously  attempted  in  1869  to 
retrieve  their  lost  fortunes,  and  a  fair  yield  was 
secured,  but  prices  continued  to  range  between  10 
and  20  cents,  and  the  net  result  of  the  effort  was  only 

1  Ibid.,  July  22,  1868. 

2  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1868,  41.  It  was  usually 
estimated  that  the  cost  of  raising,  picking,  and  curing  hops  in  the  West 
amounted  to  18  or  20  cents  a  pound. 

3  Id.,  1869,  57-58. 


AGRICULTURE  43 

to  increase  the  general  distress.  Hundreds  of  farmers 
were  ruined,  other  hundreds  lost  the  savings  of  a  life- 
time. Depression  succeeded  feverish  enthusiasm. 
The  hop  bubble  had  burst. ^ 

It  has  no  doubt  been  observed  in  these  pages  that 
the  southern  and  eastern  counties  of  Wisconsin  were 
the  scene  of  most  of  the  innovations  in  the  agriculture 
of  the  State  during  the  war.  Here  the  wool  and  dairy 
industries  first  took  root,  here  the  substitutes  for 
southern  crops  received  their  testing,  and  here  the 
hop  episode  reached  its  climax.  The  influence  of  the 
war  in  stimulating  these  experiments  has  already 
been  noticed.  A  more  fundamental  influence,  how- 
ever, was  the  increasing  soil  deterioration  of  the 
region,  caused  by  decades  of  unrotated  wheat  grow- 
ing. Meager  harvests  of  inferior  wheat  were  forcing 
even  the  most  unintelligent  farmers  to  look  about 
them  for  new  crops  and  a  better  system  of  agriculture. 
The  innovations  which  the  Civil  War  encouraged 
mark  the  first  sustained  elTort  of  Wisconsin  to  ad- 
vance to  a  rational  system  of  mixed  agriculture. 
They  represent  the  transition  from  an  old  to  a  new 
kind  of  farming. 

The  agricultural  system  from  which  these  early 
Wisconsin  farmers  were  trying  to  escape  was  char- 
acteristic of  the  frontier.  It  was  a  one-crop  system 
in  which  every  interest  was  sacrificed  to  wheat. 
Wheat  was  the  obvious  crop  to  grow.  It  required 
little  care  and  less  equipment,  two  extremely  im- 
portant considerations  in  a  new  community  where 

1  The  depression  in  the  hop  market  continued  unrelieved  until  1871, 
when  owing  to  the  failure  of  the  eastern  crop,  prices  again  became  normal. 
A  large  proportion  of  Wisconsin  growers  had  in  the  meantime  plowed  up 
their  yards.    After  1871  the  industry  became  comparatively  steady. 


44  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

both  labor  and  capital  were  scarce  and  expensive. 
It  could  be  marketed  to  advantage  for  its  value 
was  high  compared  with  its  bulk.  It  undoubtedly 
exhausted  the  soil,  but  to  the  pioneer  this  was  a 
minor  matter.  The  original  cost  of  the  farm  was 
"an  insignificant  fraction  of  its  intrinsic  value,  which 
is  more  than  repaid  by  the  net  proceeds  of  a  single 
crop.  He  cares  little  for  a  small  diminution  of  pro- 
ductive capacity,  while  he  can  fence  and  stock  his 
farm,  and  place  money  in  bank,  from  the  sale  of  suc- 
cessive crops  of  wheat,  and  then  sell  the  naked  land  for 
ten-fold  its  original  cost."^  Onward  toward  the  setting 
sun  uncounted  millions  of  fresh  acres  held  out  their 
invitation  to  the  enterprising.  There  wheat  would 
once  more  spring  up  at  the  very  touch  of  the  plow. 
The  pioneer  farmer  should  not  be  harshly  con- 
demned for  thus  exploiting  the  richness  of  the  soil.  He 
himself  was  a  victim  of  circumstances.^  Usually  he  was 
poor  and  saddled  with  debt.  He  was  obliged  to  cap- 
italize the  fertility  of  his  soil  as  quickly  as  possible 
in  order  to  free  himself  from  embarrassing  encum- 
brances, and  to  secure  necessary  improvements. 
Impractical  eastern  theorists  might  easily  preach 
the  beauty  and  dignity  of  crop  rotation  and  scientific 
agriculture;  he  knew  that  such  a  system  was  un- 
suited  to  conditions  on  the  frontier.  If  he  neglected 
or  destroyed  the  small  quantities  of  manure  that 
accumulated  on  his  meagerly  stocked  farm,  if  he 
burned  his  strawstacks  in  midnight  celebration, 
that,  too,  was  part  of  an  unescapable  system.^   "Bet- 

1  U.  S.  Comr.  of  Agric.  Report,  1868,  18. 
*  U.  S.  Census,  1860,  Agric,  pp.  viii-x. 

'  In  1868  when  conditions  were  improving,  the  secretary  of  the  Wisconsin 
State  Agricultural  Society  wrote:  "Fewer  of  the  old  barns  lie  inaccessible 


AGRICULTURE  45 

ter  tillage,  accompanied  by  the  use  of  manures  and 
other  fertilizers,  would  not,  upon  the  virgin  soils, 
have  added  sufficiently  to  the  yield  to  pay  the  cost 
of  applying  them.  Hence,  to  the  first  farmers  of  the 
State  poor  farming  was  the  only  profitable  farming, 
and  consequently  the  only  good  farming,  an  agricul- 
ture-economical paradox  from  which  there  was  no 
escape."^ 

No  doubt  this  system  of  agriculture  persisted  for 
many  years  after  it  had  ceased  to  be  even  econom- 
ically advantageous  in  southern  and  eastern  Wis- 
consin. As  early  even  as  the  decade  of  the  fifties  soil 
exhaustion  was  making  itself  evident  in  short  crops 
of  inferior  grain.  But  settled  habits  of  single  cropping, 
ignorance  of  better  methods  of  farming,  and  the  high 
price  to  which  wheat  rose  on  occasions  when  a  change 
seemed  imminent  maintained  the  preeminence  of 
the  great  staple.  Toward  the  end  of  the  fifties,  after 
a  succession  of  unfruitful  years,  a  change  seemed  to 
be  at  hand,  when  there  came  the  tremendous  crop 
of  1860,  rousing  new  hopes  that  the  soil  was  still 
undiminished  in  its  richness.  The  war  followed  soon 
after,  during  which,  unhappily,  the  movement  for 
reform  suffered  another  setback.  Southern  battle- 
fields called  from  the  farms  of  the  State  the  labor 
which  was  necessary  for  a  thorough  system  of  agri- 
culture; the  rapid  introduction  of  agricultural  ma- 
chinery, particularly  harvesting  machinery,  and  the 

and  useless  in  the  steaming,  stenchy  craters  of  surrounding  manure 
heaps;  and  a  less  number  of  those  newly  built  are  found  standing  on  the 
brow  of  a  hUl  or  on  the  brink  of  some  stream,  with  a  view  to  an  easy 
riddance  of  such  'miserable  offal'  as,  somehow,  will  accumulate  in  and 
about  every  stable  and  cow-yard!"     Trans.,  1861-68,  32. 

1  W.  W.  Daniells,  "Agriculture,"  in  History  of  Dodge  County,  Wisconsin 
(Chicago,  1880),  151. 


46  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

passage  of  the  Homestead  Act  in  1862  encouraged 
as  never  before  the  cultivation  of  broad  acres.  More 
important  than  all  else,  the  unusual  prices  to  which 
wheat  rose  during  and  after  the  conflict  tempted 
agriculturists  to  continue  raising  it  even  though  the 
yield  per  acre  was  declining  and  the  quality  of  the 
grain  was  inferior.^  Those  who  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war  were  contemplating  careful  and  thorough 
methods  of  agriculture  now  reverted  to  old  practices, 
and  wheat  was  once  more  planted  in  fields  too  im- 
poverished adequately  to  sustain  it.  The  southern 
and  eastern  counties  of  the  State  continued  through- 
out the  decade  to  specialize  in  the  staple  and  easily 
maintained  their  leadership  in  its  production.  To  the 
observing,  however,  it  was  evident  that  a  change  was 
at  hand. 

Fortunately  a  good  share  of  the  farmers  of  the 
State  were  immigrants  of  European  origin.  The 
Yankee  farmer  has  been  characterized  as  a  depleter 
of  soils  and  destroyer  of  forests,  and  certain  it  is  that 
his  restless  spirit  and  eager  enterprise  fitted  him 
rather  to  be  an  exploiter  than  a  conserver  of  natural 
resources.  The  European  immigrant  who  foUow^ed 
in  his  footsteps  knew  the  value  of  land,  was  accus- 
tomed to  careful  farming,  and  was  by  nature  pains- 

1  During  the  closing  years  of  the  decade  Wisconsin  was  producing  only 
slightly  more  wheat  than  at  the  beginning,  though  the  number  of  acres 
devoted  to  it  had  increased  over  50  per  cent.  The  decline  in  the  quality  of 
the  Wisconsin  grain  was  even  more  striking.  In  1865,  77  per  cent  of  the 
wheat  shipped  to  Milwaukee  was  graded  "No.  1";  in  1870  only  30  per 
cent  attained  this  standard.  Much  of  the  grain  received  in  Milwaukee, 
it  should  further  be  obser\^ed,  was  raised  in  Minnesota  and  Iowa,  a  larger 
proportion  in  1870  than  in  1865.  Were  it  possible  to  exclude  from  the 
Milwaukee  receipts  this  high-grade  wheat,  it  would  be  seen  that  the  decline 
in  the  quahty  of  the  Wisconsin  product  was  even  more  rapid  than  has 
been  indicated. 


AGRICULTURE  47 

taking  and  industrious.  Many  of  the  early  arrivals 
were,  it  is  true,  driven  by  poverty  and  the  force  of 
surroundings  to  adopt  the  land-skimming  methods 
of  the  Americans.  But  those  who  came  when  the 
first  era  of  exploitation  was  over  exerted  a  powerful 
influence  for  a  change  to  a  more  rational  system  of 
agriculture. 

The  expansion  of  the  agricultural  borders  of 
Wisconsin  proceeded  with  some  interruption  during 
the  war.  In  1860  only  the  southern  half  of  the  State 
was  settled  and  under  cultivation.  The  northern  half 
was  still  for  the  most  part  an  unbroken  forest,  dis- 
turbed only  by  the  hunter,  the  trapper,  and  the 
lumberman.^  During  the  war  two  projections  of 
settlement  were  thrust  northward  into  this  region, 
one  in  the  northwestern  portion,  the  other,  of  smaller 
dimensions,  in  the  northeastern  portion.  Between 
the  two,  and  in  the  far  northern  counties,  there  re- 
mained a  practically  unexplored  and  somewhat 
uninviting  wilderness,  the  subjugation  of  which 
was  left  to  a  later  generation. 

The  extension  of  the  agricultural  frontier  of  the 
State  was  reflected  in  a  rapid  increase  in  farm  acre- 
age. Between  1860  and  1870  the  amount  of  land  in 
farms  increased  from  7,893,587  acres  to  11,715,321 
acres,  more  than  48  per  cent,  while  the  number  of 
acres  of  improved  land  increased  from  3,746,167  to 
5,899,343,  more  than  57  per  cent.^  Most  pronounced 
was  the  expansion  in  the  northwestern  counties, 
where  farm  acreage  increased  225  per  cent  and  im- 

1  Among  the  minor  products  of  the  northern  forests  and  marshes  were 
maple  sugar,  furs,  cranberries,  and  ginseng. 

2U.  S.  Census,  1860,  Agric,  166;  id.,  1870,  III,  280. 


48  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

proved  lands  275  per  cent.  In  the  northeastern 
counties  the  increases  were  115  and  135  per  cent, 
respectively.^  It  was  the  addition  of  these  new 
acres  that  maintained  Wisconsin  high  in  the  ranks  of 
the  wheat-producing  states  of  the  nation  at  a  time 
when  the  yield  per  acre  of  her  southern  farms  was 
swiftly  declining. 

In  the  settled  portions  of  the  State  the  new  farm 
acreage  represented  lands  which  in  the  first  rush  of 
development  had  for  one  reason  or  another  been 
passed  by.  In  the  northwest  and  the  northeast,  how- 
ever, it  represented  the  conquest  of  the  public 
domain.  The  Federal  government,  the  State,  the 
land-grant  railroads,  and  the  various  canal  and  plank- 
road  companies  were  all  at  this  time  competing  with 
one  another  in  the  sale  of  their  lands  in  this  frontier 
region.  The  Federal  government,  moreover,  inau- 
gurated on  Jan.  1,  1863  its  new  policy  of  giving  away 
160-acre  homesteads  to  actual  settlers,  and  by  the 
end  of  the  war  had  thus  disposed  of  351,833  acres  in 
Wisconsin,  chiefly  in  the  northwestern  counties. ^ 

Although  Wisconsin  was  thus  rapidly  expanding, 
her  rate  of  growth  was  far  less  than  that  of  her 
neighbors,  Minnesota  and  Iowa.  Indeed  it  was  but 
a  fourth  as  rapid  as  her  own  growth  during  the 
decade  of  the  fifties.  The  war  was  perhaps  responsi- 
ble in  a  small  measure  for  this  check,  but  the  chief 
cause  lay  elsewhere.   In  1860  practically  all  the  choice 

*  The  counties  grouped  as  northwestern  are  St.  Croix,  Pierce,  Pepin, 
Dunn,  Chippewa,  Buffalo,  Eau  Claire,  Trempealeau,  Jackson,  La  Cro3se, 
Monroe,  and  Polk.  The  counties  grouped  as  northeastern  are  Door, 
Kewaunee,  Brown,  Outagamie,  Waupaca,  Shawano,  Marathon,  Portage, 
Waushara,  Manitowoc,  Winnebago,  and  Calumet. 

2  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  General  Land  Office,  Reports,  1860-70. 


AGRICULTURE  49 

public  lands  in  Wisconsin,  with  the  exception  of 
those  in  the  northwestern  and  the  northeastern 
counties,  were  gone.  The  only  stretches  of  unoccu- 
pied land  in  the  State  lay  in  the  north-central  and 
the  far  northern  sections,  and  these  were  burdened 
for  the  most  part  with  timber  and  stumps.  They 
were,  moreover,  distant  from  any  means  of  trans- 
portation and,  still  more  important,  were  generally 
believed  to  be  unfit  for  cultivation.  The  w^ash  of 
glacial  streams  in  this  region  has  formed  along  its 
valleys  great  sand  streams  and  flats,  constituting 
what  w^e  know^  as  the  "plains"  or  "barrens."  Un- 
fortunately, these  occurred  mainly  along  the  earlier 
lines  of  travel,  giving  to  the  section  an  appearance  of 
barrenness  that  was  quite  untrue  of  it  as  a  whole.^ 
Even  as  late  as  1868  this  erroneous  idea  found  con- 
firmation in  a  report  of  the  United  States  Commis- 
sioner of  Agriculture.  "The  principal  part  of  the 
unsold  government  lands  in  Wisconsin,"  it  is 
declared,  "are  situated  in  the  northern  portion  of  the 
State  and  are  more  especially  important  on  account 
of  their  timber.  *  *  *  a  large  portion  of  the  soil  in 
the  region  of  the  unsold  lands  is  not  generally  adapted 
to  purposes  of  agriculture,  being  wet  and  marshy,  or 
a  dry  drift  sand."-  It  is  not  strange  that  the  great 
bulk  of  immigrants  who  came  to  Wisconsin  passed 
on  to  the  fertile  prairies  of  Minnesota.      Only  the 

1  T.  C.  Chamberlin,  Geology  of  Wisconsin,  1873-1879  (Madison,  1883), 
I,  681.  This  impression  of  the  barrenness  of  north  and  north-central  Wis- 
consin was  confirmed  by  some  of  Wisconsin's  early  geologists  who  char- 
acterized the  region  as  an  alternation  of  sand  ridges  and  impenetrable 
swamps. 

2  U.  S.  Comr.  of  Agric,  Report,  1868,  456.  With  the  completion  of  the 
Wisconsin  Central  Railroad  through  this  region  its  true  character  became 
better  known,  and  thereafter  settlement  was  rapid. 


50  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

easily  accessible  and  therefore  well-known  north- 
western and  northeastern  counties  were  able  to 
compete  with  the  western  neighbor  of  Wisconsin  in 
the  race  for  development.^ 

Agricultural  education  suffered  an  unfortunate 
check  in  the  State  during  the  adverse  years  between 
1861  and  1863,  when  popular  interest  was  diverted  to 
southern  battle-fields  and  financial  support  was  cut 
off  by  the  more  pressing  demands  of  the  war.  In  1861 
the  Wisconsin  State  Agricultural  Society,  perhaps 
the  most  effective  single  agent  for  agricultural 
education,  lost  its  annual  legislative  appropriation 
and  was  for  a  time  practically  suspended.  The 
Wisconsin  Fruit  Growers'  Association,  a  flourishing 
organization  founded  in  1853,  was  even  harder  hit, 
being  obliged  to  disband  formally  in  the  first  year 
of  the  war.  Of  the  thirty-seven  county  agricultural 
societies  active  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  only 
eighteen  survived  the  year,  and  not  until  the  end 
of  the  decade  did  the  number  again  reach  its  former 
proportions.  Upon  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  the 
Wisconsin  State  Agricultural  Society  patriotically 
turned  over  its  fairground  to  Governor  Randall  for 
use  as  a  military  camp,^  and  partly  for  this  reason, 
partly  because  of  popular  indifference,  omitted  its 
annual  State  Fair  in  the  years  1861,  1862,  and  1863. 

1  That  the  war  did  not  materially  check  Wisconsin's  agricultural  expan- 
sion may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  the  average  number  of  homesteads 
annually  entered  between  1863  and  1865  was  only  slightly  less  than  dur- 
ing the  following  years  of  the  decade.  The  quantity  of  land  sold  during 
the  period  offers  no  evidence  of  agricultural  expansion.  A  large  part  of  the 
public  domain  was  disposed  of  to  lumber  speculators  who  had  an  eye 
solely  to  the  timber  contained  on  it. 

*From  Camp  Randall,  as  the  fair  ground  came  to  be  called,  approxi- 
mately two-thirds  of  Wisconsin's  soldiers  went  forth  to  battle. 


AGRICULTURE  51 

The  various  county  societies  that  survived  the  year 
1861  continued  to  hold  their  annual  fairs  as  before, 
chiefly,  it  seems,  to  earn  the  bonus  allowed  by  the 
State,  for  the  exhibitions  usually  ended  in  partial  or 
complete  failure. 

The  prosperous  closing  years  of  the  war,  however, 
brought  a  revival  of  interest.  In  1864  the  State 
Agricultural  Society  once  more  held  its  annual  State 
Fair,  and  scored  a  success  that  was  surpassed  only 
in  the  following  year  when  the  national  war  hero, 
Gen.  William  T.  Sherman,  delivered  the  principal 
address.  In  rapid  succession  the  sorghum  growers, 
wool  growers,  and  fruit  growers  organized  new  State 
societies  or  reorganized  lifeless  ones,  while  in  most 
of  the  older  counties  discussion  clubs  and  district 
associations  of  one  kind  or  another  sprang  into 
vigorous  life.^  In  1866,  in  accordance  with  the  Federal 
College  Land  Grant  Act  of  1862,^  the  State  University 
was  reorganized  so  as  to  include  a  department  of 
agriculture  and  mechanical  arts,  an  event  little 
appreciated  at  the  time,  but  highly  significant  for  the 
future  of  agricultural  education  in  the  State. 

Wisconsin  sent  into  the  Federal  armies,  east  and 
west,  approximately  80,000  of  her  sturdiest  sons. 
To  the  newly  opened  prairies  of  Minnesota  and  Iowa 
she  sent,  during  the  war,  a  good  many  thousand 
more.  Other  thousands  were  lured  away  to  the 
mining  camps  of  Idaho,  Colorado,  Nevada,  and 
California.  This  depletion  of  labor  in  a  State  in  which 

^  The  Granger  movement  in  Wisconsin  originated  in  the  revival  of  in- 
terest in  agricultural  education  which  followed  the  Civil  War.  In  1872 
there  were  approximately  one  hundred  granges  of  the  Patrons  of  Hus- 
bandry in  the  State.     Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1872-73,  91. 

''Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1866,  chap.  114. 


52  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

five-sixths  of  the  population  were  farmers  was  a 
particularly  severe  blow  to  agriculture.  How  did 
Wisconsin  in  spite  of  the  loss  manage,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  expand  her  agricultural  borders  and  harvest 
her  extraordinary  crops?  The  answer  is  to  be  found 
in  the  substitution  of  agricultural  machinery  for 
hand  labor,  the  employment  of  women  and  children 
to  a  greater  extent  than  formerly,  and  the  acquisi- 
tion of  thousands  of  hardy  German  and  Scandinavian 
immigrants  from  Europe. 

Agricultural  machinery  had  been  employed  in  the 
State  to  a  limited  extent  long  before  the  war.  Indeed, 
the  reaper  and  the  mower,  which  were  revolution- 
izing American  agriculture,  had  been  brought  into 
Wisconsin  as  early  as  1844.^  The  Northwest  was 
particularly  adapted  to  the  use  of  such  machinery 
because  of  its  broad  and  level  prairies,  its  chronic 
scarcity  of  labor,  and  its  peculiar  mode  of  single 
cropping.  The  spread  of  the  new  appliances  was  more 
rapid,  therefore,  in  this  portion  of  the  country  than 
in  the  older  communities  of  the  East.  It  was  esti- 
mated in  1861  that  not  less  than  3,000  reapers  of 
different  patterns,  but  all  using  patented  portions  of 
the  McCormick  reaper,  had  been  sold  in  Wisconsin 
during  the  previous  year.-  However,  even  in  Wis- 
consin a  large  proportion  of  farmers  was  still,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  sowing  and  reaping  by  the  old 
laborious  methods  of  their  forefathers. 

The  war  gave  a  tremendous  stimulus  to  the  spread 

*  R.  G.  Thwaites,  "Cyrus  Hall  McCormick  and  the  Reaper,"  in  Wis. 
Hist.  Soc,  Proc,  1908,  234-59. 

2  Memorial  adopted  by  the  executive  committee  of  the  Wisconsin 
State  Agricultural  Society  on  Feb.  6,  1861  against  the  extension  of  patent 
rights  to  Cyrus  W.  McCormick.     Wis.  Farmer,  1861,  94. 


AGRICULTURE  53 

of  agricultural  machinery.  Even  the  most  conserva- 
tive farmers,  who  had  been  wont  to  sniff  at  the 
newfangled  devices  while  labor  was  comparatively 
plentiful,  now  eagerl}^  adopted  them  as  a  means  of 
saving  their  crops.  At  the  very  outbreak  of  hostilities 
the  Wisconsin  State  Journal  in  an  earnest  editorial 
thus  warned  its  agricultural  readers: 

But  this  season  the  prospect  is  almost  certain,  that  many  thousands  of 
our  most  active  and  efficient  harvest  hands,  the  very  bone  and  sinew  of 
the  harvest  fields,  will  be  called  away  to  other  fields  of  toil  and  danger. 
*  *  *  The  only  way  to  make  up  for  short  manual  help,  is  to  substitute 
as  far  as  possible,  the  horses  and  machinery.  In  fact,  that  is  all  that  has 
saved  the  State  for  years  past.  Every  good  reaper  counts  daily  equal  to 
from  five  to  ten  men.  Hence  the  thousands  of  reapers  in  the  State, 
represent  from  five  to  ten  times  as  many  thousand  men.  Then  fix  up 
your  reapers,  farmers,  all  of  you  that  have  them,  put  them  in  the  best" 
possible  condition  at  the  earliest  opportunity,  for  even  now  harvest  is  close 
upon  you.  The  tiny  green  blades  that  are  just  now  piercing  the  soil, 
will  in  sixty  days  expand  into  the  ripening  yellow  fields,  calling  for  the 
reaper  and  harvest  hands.  Then  look  up  your  reapers  we  repeat  and 
those  of  you  who  have  not  already  got  them  and  intend  to  buy  this 
season,  look  around  you  in  time  to  get  what  you  want.^ 

Labor-saving  appliances  became  everywhere  the 
subject  of  earnest  discussion  and  experimentation. 
Sw^arms  of  rival  agents  proclaiming  the  superiority 
of  their  wares  penetrated  to  the  most  remote  parts 
of  the  State;  public  trials,  at  which  rival  machines 
were  put  to  test  before  crowds  of  delighted  farmers, 
became  a  common  occurrence;  at  every  State  and 
county  fair  the  department  of  machinery  was  a  chief 
center  of  attraction. 

The  amount  of  machinery  sold  w^as  enormous.  A 
single  railroad  leading  out  of  the  city  of  Milwaukee 
moved,  during  the  years  from  1861  to  1865,  3,951,096 
pounds    of    machinery    and    22,214,094    pounds    of 

1  Wis.  State  Jour.,  May  6,  1861. 


54  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

agricultural  implements.^     In  1868  the  secretary  of 
the  Wisconsin  State  Agricultural  Society  observed: 

As  to  the  mechanical  branch  of  agriculture,  we  may  safely  assert  that 
it  has  made  more  progress  during  the  years  embraced  in  this  Report 
[1861-1868]  than  ever  before  within  the  same  length  of  time.  *  *  *  The 
number  of  reapers  and  mowers  annually  sold  in  Wisconsin,  during  the 
period  under  review,  is  really  marvellous;  compelling  the  conviction  that 
at  present  there  must  be  very  few  farmers  unsupplied.  One  single  firm 
in  the  city  of  Madison  is  this  year  selling  no  less  than  six  thousand  ma- 
chines of  a  particular  patent.  And  judging  from  the  equal  activity  and 
large  income  returns,  of  other  agents,  not  only  at  this  one  point,  but  in 
various  portions  of  the  State,  this  number  will  be  many  times  multi- 
plied.'^ 

The  importance  of  agricultural  machinery  in  the 
economy  of  the  war  can  scarcely  be  overemphasized. 
"Without  the  mechanical  reaper  for  instance,  each 
one  of  which  released  from  the  harvest  fields  of  the 
State  from  four  to  six  able-bodied  men,^  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  conceive  how  the  enormous  wheat  crops  of 
the  war  period  could  have  been  garnered.  Besides 
the  reaper  there  were  dozens  of  other  machines  of 
less  importance,  mechanical  threshers,  seed  drills, 
harrows,  rollers,  horserakes,  hay  loaders,  and  sulky 
cultivators,  in  new  and  modified  forms,  as  well  as 
scores  of  varieties  of  improved  agricultural  imple- 
ments, all  aiding  to  produce  the  food  of  the  nation 
during  the  years  of  the  crisis."* 

1  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  Railway  Company,  Reports,  1861-66. 
See  also  U.  S.  Comr.  of  Agric,  Report,  1866,  7. 

» Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1861-68,  38-39. 

*U.  S.  Comr.  of  Agric,  Report,  1867,  p.  vi. 

*  "No  matter  how  great  the  industry  and  patriotism  of  the  people,  it  is 
universally  conceded  that  the  success  of  our  Government  in  bringing  the 
late  war  to  a  favorable  issue  in  so  short  a  time  and  without  serious  financial 
distress  or  disturbance  of  social  order,  is  very  largely  due  to  the  numberless 
labor-saving  inventions  with  which  American  industry  has  been  so  pre- 
eminently blessed."  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1861-68,  39.  The  Wiscon- 
sin legislature  in  1864  expressed  similar  sentiments  when  it  memorialized 


AGRICULTURE  55 

Until  the  beginning  of  1863  the  absence  of  35,000 
boys  in  blue  was  thus  partly  compensated  for  by 
agricultural  machinery.  Women  and  children,  par- 
ticularly those  of  the  foreign  immigrants,  performed 
much  labor  on  the  farms,  but  not  in  noticeably 
greater  numbers  than  before  the  war.  Agricultural 
wages  did  not  increase  materially  from  the  standard 
of  1860,  and  agricultural  papers  contained  no  unusual 
complaints  of  scarcity  of  labor.  During  the  closing 
years  of  the  war,  however,  when  calls  for  troops 
followed  one  another  with  startling  rapidity  and 
wages  of  farm  hands  rose  in  harvest  season  to  $2  and 
$2.50  per  day,  women  and  children  were  required 
to  do  more  and  more  of  the  labor  of  the  farm. 

They  rose  to  their  responsibility  with  noble  zeal. 
In  1864  the  editor  of  the  Green  Bay  Advocate  wrote: 
"But  we  have  a  great  element  of  strength  up  here 
which  goes  far  toward  repairing  the  loss  in  farm 
hands  by  the  war.  The  sturdy,  muscular  German  and 
Belgian  women  plough  and  sow  and  reap  with  all  the 
skill  and  activity  of  men,  and  we  believe  are  fully 
their  equals  in  strength.  If  need  be  they  will  even  go 
into  the  pineries  and  do  the  logging."^  The  Milwaukee 
Daily  News  in  the  spring  of  1864  contained  this 
statement  from  "a  reliable  and  intelligent  gentleman 
who  has  just  returned  from  a  recent  visit  to  some 
of  the  northern  counties."  "A  grown  man  at  work  in 
the  field  is  a  rare  sight.  The  farm  labor  is  mostly 
being  done  by  women  and  children. "^  On  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  State  the  La  Crosse  Democrat  observed 

Congress  to  lower  the  tax  on  the  sale  of  agricultural  machinery.     Wis. 
Gen.  Laws,  1864,  Memorial  no.  18. 

1  Green  Bay  Advocate,  June  9,  1864. 

2  Excerpt  from  Milwaukee  Daily  News  in  Wis.  State  Jour.,  June  1,  1864. 


56  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

in  1864:  "It  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  to  find  half 
a  dozen  farms  adjoining  where  there  is  not  a  man  or 
boy  to  harvest  the  grain  crop,  and  where  the  women 
are  half  unsexed  in  their  efforts  to  keep  body  and 
soul  together  against  the  return  of  a  husband  or 
brother  from  the  wars."^ 

The  war  closed  in  the  summer  of  1865,  and  before 
the  end  of  the  year  39,865  of  the  soldiers  of  Wisconsin, 
nearly  all  who  were  then  in  the  service, ^  were  back 
in  the  State  seeking  the  places  which  for  several 
years  had  been  doing  without  them.  At  the  same 
time  the  return  of  peace  swelled  to  unusual  propor- 
tions the  stream  of  immigrants  pouring  into  the 
State.  It  seemed  for  a  brief  space  that  Wisconsin 
would  be  swamped  by  the  sudden  deluge  of  labor 
power;  that  unemployment  would  follow,  as  in  fact 
it  did  follow  in  the  industrial  centers  of  the  East. 
Not  so,  however;  to  Wisconsin's  rescue  came  again 
the  superior  elasticity  of  agricultural  organization. 
Thirty-five  thousand  of  the  returning  veterans  came 
during  the  late  summer  and  autumn,'^  when  they 
were  readily  absorbed  by  the  harvest  fields.  No 
doubt  many  farmers  in  the  older  portions  of  the 
State  took  advantage  of  the  return  of  sons  and 
brothers  to  make  the  beginnings  of  a  more  thorough 

1  La  Crosse  Democrat,  July  19,  1864.  In  1863  a  group  of  farmers  in  the 
town  of  Trenton,  Dodge  County,  imported  from  Cairo,  111.,  a  crew  of 
about  forty  emancipated  negroes  to  labor  as  farm  hands.  The  experiment 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  repeated  elsewhere.  A  strong  feeling  against 
permitting  the  settlement  of  free  negroes  in  the  State  developed  shortly 
after  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  went  into  effect,  which  found  ex- 
pression at  the  legislative  session  of  1863  in  about  sixty  petitions  requesting 
that  negro  immigration  to  Wisconsin  be  prohibited. 

2  Wisconsin  Adjutant  General,  Report,  1865,  22-25,  28-30. 
» Ibid. 


AGRICULTURE  57 

and  intensive  system  of  agriculture.  Such  of  the 
veterans  as  did  not  easily  fit  themselves  into  this  old 
environment  emigrated  to  the  fertile  prairies  of 
Iowa,  Minnesota,  and  northwestern  Wisconsin,  where 
they  either  entered  homesteads  upon  the  government 
domain  or  purchased  land  from  private  agencies. 

Astonishing  as  it  may  seem,  the  return  of  the 
soldiers  did  not  even  completely  supply  the  demand 
for  agricultural  laborers.  From  many  of  the  newly 
settled  portions  of  Wisconsin  complaints  still  arose 
at  the  close  of  1865  of  the  scarcity  of  help.  Thus  the 
Hudson  Star,  published  in  St.  Croix  County,  observed 
in  October:  "Notwithstanding  the  return  of  so  many 
soldiers,  there  is  a  great  scarcity  of  labor  in  this 
section.  Farmers  are  behind  in  their  fall  work,  being 
unable  to  get  hands,  and  all  kinds  of  mechanics  are 
in  great  demand.  Many  improvements  intended  to 
be  made  this  fall  will  have  to  be  deferred  on  account 
of  the  lack  of  labor. "^  On  Jan.  11,  1866  Governor 
Fairchild,  speaking  for  the  country  as  a  whole, 
though  his  observation  was  limited  to  the  Northwest 
and  was  correct  only  for  that  section,  declared: 
"A  million  of  men  have  returned  from  the  war,  been 
disbanded  in  our  midst  and  resumed  their  former 
occupations,  and  yet  from  all  sides  we  hear  the  surest 
of  all  signs  of  national  prosperity,  complaints  of  the 
scarcity  of  labor. "- 

Thus  the  farmers  of  Wisconsin  met  and  solved  the 
problems  arising  out  of  the  Civil  War.  During  its 
last    three    years   and   the  three  years  immediately 

1  Printed  in  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Nov.  7,  1865.     See  also  Shawano  County 
Journal,  Oct.  12  and  26,  1865;  Wis.  Farmer,  1865,  338. 
•  ^  W^is.  Mess,  and  Docs.,  1866,  I,  p.  iii. 


58  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

following  its  close,  they  enjoyed  an  era  of  prosperity 
such  as  they  had  never  before  known.  The  heavy 
burdens  of  the  war  they  cheerfully  bore,  and  only 
one  grievance,  the  arbitrary  exactions  of  grain- 
carrying  railroads  in  the  State, ^  marred  the  universal 
contentment.  With  the  handsome  profits  which  they 
realized  from  their  crops  they  were  improving  their 
farms,  purchasing  new  lands,  and  paying  the  debts 
accumulated  during  a  previous  decade  of  speculation. 
They  were  proudly  conscious  of  the  important 
services  they  were  rendering  the  cause  of  the  Union. 
Early  in  the  war  the  Milwaukee  Daily  Wisconsin 
effectively  stated  a  thought,  frequently  expressed  in 
the  press  and  on  the  platform  during  and  after  the 
conflict:  "Not  only  has  the  want  of  this  surplus 
grain  [of  the  Northwest]  put  England  and  France 
under  bonds  to  keep  peace  with  us,  but  the  specie 
proceeds  have  given  the  sinews  that  now  maintain 
our  patriotic  defenders.  The  farmers  of  the  North- 
west, in  producing  this  surplus  grain,  have  fought  a 
battle  for  the  Union  of  greater  significance  than  any 
possible  achievement  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Potomac. "2 

>  See  chap.  xii. 

2  Milwaukee  Daily  Wisconsin,  Nov.  1,  1861. 


CHAPTER  II 

LUMBERING 

The  lumber  industry  in  Wisconsin,  though  still  in 
its  infancy  in  1860,  ranked  second  only  to  agriculture 
in  importance.  The  Wisconsin  forest  covered  roughly 
all  of  the  northern  three-fifths  of  the  State,  forming 
part  of  that  vast  timber  belt  which  originally 
stretched  almost  unbroken  over  northern  Michigan, 
Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota.  It  consisted  in  part  of 
mixed  growths  of  pine  and  hardwood,  in  part  of  solid 
stands  of  pine.  The  mixed  forests,  which  occurred 
usually  on  loamy  and  clay  soils,  were  in  this  early 
period  of  Wisconsin  lumbering  considered  valuable 
only  in  so  far  as  they  contained  quantities  of  white 
pine.  Hardwoods  and  hemlock  had  as  yet  little 
commercial  value  except  in  the  lower  Fox  River 
Valley  and  along  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan.  The 
pine  forests,  which  occurred  usually  on  sandy  soils 
and  in  particular  along  the  banks  of  the  northern 
streams,  contained  the  prize  of  every  lumberman's 
heart.  In  Wisconsin  were  to  be  found  some  of  the 
finest  stands  of  pine  timber  in  the  entire  world. ^ 

This  magnificent  forest  was  drained  by  a  dozen 
or  more  useful  logging  streams,  which  divided  it  into 
clearly  defined  lumbering  districts.    At  the  beginning 

1  For  a  detailed  description  of  the  original  Wisconsin  forest  see  Filibert 
Roth,  Forestry  Conditions  of  Northern  Wisconsin  (Madison,  1898),  10-12; 
and  Mary  Dopp,  "Geographical  Influences  in  the  Development  of  Wis- 
consin," in  American  Geographical  Society,  Bulletin,  1913,  737-49. 

[59  1 


60  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

of  the  Civil  War  six  of  these  had  already  come  into 
prominence,  the  Wolf  River  and  Green  Bay  districts 
in  northeastern  Wisconsin,  and  the  Wisconsin,  Black, 
Chippewa,  and  St.  Croix  in  northwestern  Wisconsin.^ 
Lumbering  operations  had  been  carried  on  in  all  of 
them  since  1830,  the  first  sawmill  in  the  State  having 
been  erected  at  De  Pere  as  early  as  1809.^  The  total 
cut  of  pine  prior  to  the  war  had,  however,  been  com- 
paratively small,  and  in  1860  the  invading  loggers 
were  yet  thundering  only  at  the  outer  gates  of  the 
vast  forest  solitudes  of  Wisconsin. 

The  lumber  produced  in  the  State  at  this  time  was 
consumed  almost  entirely  west  of  Lake  Michigan. 
The  Badger  pineries  were  consequently  dependent 
for  their  progress  upon  the  industrial  development 
of  this  region.  In  a  period  of  boom  immigrants 
pouring  in  upon  newly  opened  lands  required  large 
amounts  of  lumber  for  their  homes,  barns,  and  fences; 
rapidly  growing  cities  and  villages  sent  out  their 
calls  for  ever  more  building  material;  and  railroads, 
hurrying  their  lines  across  the  prairies,  consumed 
quantities  of  ties  and  bridge  timbers.  In  a  period  of 
depression,  however,  expansion  and  building  ceased, 
and  the  pineries  were  the  first  to  feel  the  lack  of  a 
market.    Thus  during  the  boom  years  from  1850  to 

1  At  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  the  Black,  Chippewa,  and  St. 
Croix  pineries  which  were  the  least  developed  were  often  grouped  together 
as  one. 

-  The  Green  Bay  and  the  Wisconsin  River  pineries  were  perhaps  the  most 
extensively  exploited  at  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War.  For  accounts 
of  early  lumbering  in  Wisconsin  seeW.  B.  Judson,  "Lumber  Manufacture," 
in  History  of  Dodge  Countij,  Wisconsin,  185-91;  R.  G.  Thwaites,  Wisconsin 
(Boston,  1908),  281-82;  Amer.  Geog.  Soc,  Bulletin,  1913,  737-49; 
Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  Ill,  435-52;  E.  B.  Usher,  Wisconsin  (Chicago,  1914), 
I,  153-219. 


LUMBERING  61 

1856  the  lumber  industry  of  Wisconsin  flourished 
and  grew  as  never  before,  while  prices  just  prior  to 
the  panic  of  1857  were  the  highest  that  the  Badger 
lumbermen  had  ever  enjoyed.  But  the  panic  of  1857 
put  a  disastrous  end  to  expansion,  and  for  three 
years  the  Wisconsin  pineries  knew  only  discourage- 
ment and  failure. 

In  the  autumn  of  1860  prospects  brightened.  The 
slowly  recovering  energies  of  the  Northwest  were 
being  quickened  into  new  life  by  the  wonderful  grain 
crop  of  that  year,  and  farmers  once  more  prepared 
to  purchase  lumber  for  long-delayed  improvements. 
The  revival  was  but  short-lived,  however.  The  elec- 
tion of  Lincoln,  followed  by  the  gathering  of  the  war 
cloud  in  the  South  and  the  financial  crisis  in  the 
North,  destroyed  the  hope  of  a  new  period  of  ex- 
pansion, and  the  Wisconsin  pineries  relapsed  once 
more  into  depression.  The  price  of  mixed  lumber  in 
cargo  lots  sank  in  the  Chicago  market  from  a  maximum 
of  $12  per  thousand  feet  in  the  middle  of  October, 
1860  to  a  maximum  of  $6.75  per  thousand  in  the 
beginning  of  May,  1861,  and  continued  to  range  at 
ruinous  figures  until  well  into  the  next  year.^  It  was 
not  until  the  end  of  1862  that  fortune  once  more 
smiled  upon  the  lumbermen  of  the  State. 

Prosperity,  so  long  delayed,  was  of  generous 
proportions  when  it  finally  returned.  In  the  fall  of 
1863  prices  rose  with  a  bound.  There  followed  a 
crusade  into  the  pineries  that  was  likened  by  a 
Wisconsin  newspaper  to  the  Pike's  Peak  gold  rush 
of  1859-60.2     The  value  of  pine  continued  to  soar. 

•  Chicago  Board  of  Trade,  Reports,  1860-75. 
2Appleton  Crescent,  Oct.  21,  1863. 


62  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

In  the  season  of  1864  in  the  Chicago  market  it  at- 
tained the  unprecedented  height  of  $23  per  thousand 
feet  for  cargo  lots.^  Unhappily  the  pineries  of  north- 
western Wisconsin  were  unable  to  take  full  advantage 
of  this  good  fortune,  for  in  1863  and  1864  a  large 
portion  of  their  logs  was  tied  up  by  an  unusually 
low  stage  of  water  in  the  tributaries  of  the  upper 
Mississippi.  Lumbermen  in  northeastern  Wisconsin, 
however,  were  prosperous  as  never  before.  Their 
products  were  distributed  by  the  lumber-carrying 
railroads  of  Chicago  not  only  to  the  southward  and 
southwest  but  to  those  western  regions  which  the 
pineries  of  the  upper  Mississippi  customarily  sup- 
plied. During  the  year  1864  Chicago  received  from 
northern  Wisconsin  and  western  Michigan  more  than 
half  a  billion  feet  of  pine,  to  say  nothing  of  vast 
quantities  of  shingles,  lath,  and  pickets.  In  1864  the 
receipts  of  the  Illinois  metropolis  surpassed  for  the 
first  time  the  previous  record  of  1857. 

Temporary  depression  succeeded  this  period  of 
unusual  prosperity.  In  the  spring  of  1865  the  Missis- 
sippi and  its  tributaries  were  visited  by  raging 
floods,  and  every  stick  of  timber  accumulated  on  the 
banks  during  the  two  preceding  seasons  was  floated 
to  market.  The  return  of  peace  likewise  depressed 
the  sensitive  lumber  market.  In  June,  1865  pine  in 
cargo  lots  could  be  purchased  in  Chicago  for  $10  per 
thousand.  The  rapid  expansion  of  the  Northwest, 
however,  quickly  dispelled  the  cloud.  The  railroads 
of  Chicago  and  Milwaukee,  in  their  efforts  to  capture 
the  grain  trade  of  Iowa  and  Minnesota,  and  the  Union 
Pacific  on  its  way  to  the  western  coast  were  speeding 

1  Chicago  Board  of  Trade,  Report,  1869,  65. 


LUMBERING  63 

their  construction  as  never  before.  The  treeless 
prairies  which  they  opened  for  settlement  were 
peopled  by  soldiers  returning  from  the  war  and  by 
immigrants  coming  hither  from  abroad.  The  demand 
for  lumber  exceeded  the  supply.  Prices  rose  during 
1866  and  the  early  part  of  1867  to  a  higher  average 
even  than  during  the  most  prosperous  years  of 
the  war.^  Never  had  the  ax  and  saw  found  such 
busy  and  profitable  employment  in  the  forests  of 
Wisconsin. 

Industrial  depression,  a  delayed  but  inevitable 
consequence  of  the  Civil  War,  sent  prices  sharply 
downward  during  the  season  of  1867.  For  three 
years  the  markets  now  ranged  uniformly  low,  and 
in  spite  of  a  sharp  curtailment  of  expenses  the 
profits  of  Wisconsin  lumbermen  were  very  much 
reduced.  There  was  a  quick  improvement  in  1871  and 
1872  in  response  to  returning  prosperity,  stimulated 
in  the  autumn  of  1871  by  the  great  October  fires, 
one  of  which  destroyed  a  large  part  of  the  city  of 
Chicago  while  the  other  swept  over  the  rich  forest 
areas  of  northeastern  Wisconsin.  With  the  panic  of 
1873,  however,  all  industry  was  again  prostrate. 

It  is  extremely  difficult  to  determine  accurately  the 
extent  of  Wisconsin  lumbering  operations  during 
the  period  under  review.  This  is  owing  in  part  to  the 
nature  of  the  industry,  in  part  to  the  lack  of  de- 
pendable statistics.  An  approximation  of  the  activi- 
ties of  the  State  has  been  secured,  however,  by 
carefully  collating  and  checking  scattering  data 
found  in  the  files  of  nearly  a  score  of  representative 
pinery   newspapers   with    materials   found   in   other 

» Ibid. 


64  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

sources.^  From  such  information  it  appears  that  in 
the  winter  of  1860-61  the  total  product  of  the  north- 
ern forests  of  Wisconsin  in  lumber  sawed  and  logs 
rafted  down  the  Mississippi  was  about  375,000,000 
feet,  a  decrease  from  the  season  of  1856-57,  when  the 
industry  was  at  its  height,  of  some  100,000,000  feet. 
The  various  river  and  lake  districts  contributed 
toward  this  total  in  about  the  following  proportions: 
the  Wisconsin,  90,000,000;  the  Black,  40,000,000;  the 
Chippewa,  60,000,000;  the  St.  Croix,  including  only 
the  Wisconsin  side,  40,000,000;  the  Wolf,  75,000,000; 
the  Green  Bay,  including  only  the  Wisconsin  side, 
60,000,000;  and  the  western  shore  of  Lake  Michigan 
with  Manitowoc  as  a  center,  10,000,000. ^ 

During  the  winter  which  followed  the  outbreak  of 
the  war  the  lumber  cut  of  the  State  was,  as  in 
1860-61,  far  below  normal.  In  1863,  however, 
began  a  period  of  rapid  expansion.  By  the  season  of 
1866-67  the  pineries  were  yielding  to  the  ax  and 
the  saw  an  annual  tribute  of  800,000,000  feet.  By 
1868-69  the  product  had  reached  the  total  of 
1,200,000,000  feet,  more  than  a  threefold  increase 
within  eight  years. 

'  A  valuable  source  of  information  is  the  annual  lumber  circular  issued 
by  Bogy  &  Fry  (later  Berthold  &  Jennings)  of  St.  Louis  from  1870  to  1873, 
printed  in  St.  Louis  Union  Merchants'  Exchange,  Reports,  1869-73;  also 
Chicago  Board  of  Trade,  Reports,  1860-75;  Wisconsin  Lumberman,  Feb- 
ruary, 1871  339;  id.,  January,  1875,  204-6;  id.,  February,  1875,  395-424; 
J.  S.  Ritchie,  Wisconsin  and  Its  Resources  (Philadelphia,  1857),  66-71; 
G.  W.  Hotchkiss,  History  of  the  Lumber  and  Forest  Industry  of  the  North- 
west (Chicago,  1898),  501;  Silas  Farmer,  Map  of  Wisconsin  for  1872  (De- 
troit, 1872). 

^  It  should  be  remembered  that  these  statistics  refer  to  the  annual  cut, 
not  to  the  amount  of  lumber  brought  to  market.  The  latter  varied  greatly 
with  conditions  of  stream  flow.  Half  of  the  product  of  the  Green  Bay  and 
St.  Croix  pineries  is  usually  credited  to  Wisconsin. 


LUMBERING  65 

Thereafter  for  a  time  the  rate  of  development  was 
somewhat  checked,  but  by  the  winter  of  1870-71  the 
camps  were  again  as  busy  as  ever.  In  the  season  of 
1871-72  every  logging  crew  redoubled  its  efTorts  to 
gather  a  rich  harvest,  and  the  cut  attained  the 
enormous  total  of  1,600,000,000  feet.  It  was  a  record 
that  remained  unequalled  for  the  next  nine  years, 
for  with  the  panic  of  1873  expansion  came  to  a  close. 

The  several  pinery  districts  of  the  State  shared 
unequally  in  the  growth  of  the  years  1862  to  1872. 
The  Wisconsin  district  shared  least  of  all,  and  was 
rapidly  surpassed  by  the  others.  The  chief  cause  for 
its  slow  development  was  the  nature  of  the  stream 
upon  which  its  products  were  sent  to  market.  The 
Wisconsin  River,  because  of  its  extreme  length,  its 
sweeping  bends,  and  its  frequent  rapids  and  dangerous 
waterfalls,  was  the  most  expensive  rafting  stream 
in  the  State.  It  was  likewise  the  most  difficult  of 
access  for  supplies.  The  latter  had  to  be  hauled 
into  its  pineries  long  distances  by  team  at  great 
expense.  Its  lumbermen  were  quite  unable  to  com- 
pete, at  least  in  the  manufacture  of  common  lumber, 
with  their  more  favored  rivals  of  the  Chippewa, 
Black,  and  St.  Croix  rivers. 

The  Chippewa  region  was  coming  to  the  front  with 
giant  strides.  It  contained  a  magnificent  stand  of 
pine  timber,  the  finest,  its  lumbermen  maintained, 
in  the  entire  country.  One-sixth  of  all  the  white  pine 
to  be  found  within  the  United  States  was  said  to  be 
standing  within  its  confines.  Prior  to  1863  these 
immense  riches  were  but  little  known  even  within 
the  State.  During  the  closing  years  of  the  war, 
however,  speculators  and  operators  from  the  whole 


66  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Northwest  were  rushing  thither  to  invest.  The 
product  of  the  Chippewa  leaped  from  60,000,000 
feet  in  the  season  of  1860-61  to  285,000,000  feet  in 
1868-69  and  436,000,000  feet  in  1871-72,  more  than 
a  sevenfold  increase  in  a  period  of  eleven  years. ^  In 
the  quantity  of  its  annual  yield  the  Chippewa  dis- 
trict by  1870  held  undisputed  leadership  over  all 
others;  in  the  quality  of  its  lumber  it  was  surpassed 
by   none. 

In  the  season  of  1871-72  the  Green  Bay  district, 
including  only  the  Wisconsin  portion,  produced 
300,000,000  feet,  an  amount  somewhat  in  excess  of 
its  usual  yield.  This  increase  is  accounted  for  by  the 
necessity  of  immediately  converting  into  lumber 
the  deadened  and  fallen  pine  stumps  upon  the  wide 
area  that  had  been  burned  in  the  Peshtigo  fire  of 
the  previous  October.  The  Wolf  River  pineries 
produced  in  1871-72,  180,000,000  feet,  the  Wiscon- 
sin, 200,000,000  feet,  the  Black,  300,000,000  feet, 
and  the  St.  Croix,  including  only  the  Wisconsin  side, 
105,000,000  feet. 2 

A  typical  lumber  camp  in  any  of  the  Wisconsin 
pineries  presented  to  the  spectator  a  combination  of 
animated  sights  and  sounds.  The  rapid  tap  of  the 
chopper's  ax,  the  sudden  crash  as  here  and  there  a 
majestic  pine  thundered  to  earth,  the  intermittent 
rip  of  the  saw  as  it  rent  the  fallen  giant  into  logs, 
the  jingle  of  bells  on  the  ox-drawn  sled  as  it  slowly 
moved  off  with  its  load  to  the  river  bank,  or  returned 

1  See  newspaper  exchanges  from  La  Crosse  Republican  printed  in  Wis. 
Stale  Jour.,  Feb.  19,  1861;  St.  Louis  Union  Merchants'  Exchange,  Reporl, 
1869,  72;  id.,  1872,  9.^. 

2  The  sources  from  which  these  statistics  have  been  secured  are  ihid., 
91-92;  Wis.  Lumberman,  February,  1875,  395-424. 


LUMBERING  67 

on  the  run  for  a  new  burden  of  logs,  the  hearty 
shouts  of  the  red-shirted  lumberjacks  as  they  hastened 
about  their  work  in  the  keen  and  exhilarating  winter 
air,  all  this  was  the  foreground  for  which,  in  strange 
contrast,  the  background  was  the  solemn  grandeur 
of  the  forest. 

With  the  coming  of  spring  and  the  disappearance 
of  the  snow  from  the  logging  roads,  labor  in  the  forest 
came  to  an  end.  The  lumbermen  now  turned  their 
energies  to  the  log  drive.  Presently  rivers  were  freed 
of  their  imprisoning  coat  of  ice  and  spring  floods  were 
at  hand  to  carry  the  logs  to  the  mills.  Unhappy  the 
logger,  particularly  when  his  operations  took  him 
far  up  stream,  if  the  melting  snow  and  the  spring 
rains  produced  only  a  slight  rise  of  water.  Then  his 
logs  were  tied  up,  and  he  must  wait  for  a  more  favor- 
able year  to  carry  them  to  market.  But  when  the 
river  was  high  the  red-shirts,  handspike  in  hand, 
gaily  set  about  the  hazardous  work  of  "breaking"  the 
roUways  and  delivering  to  the  swollen  stream  the 
accumulated  harvest  of  the  winter's  work. 

The  drive  was  the  most  picturesque  as  it  certainly 
was  the  most  dangerous  portion  of  the  season's 
operations.  Down  the  ice-cold  torrent  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  logs  went  surging  and  hurtling, 
sometimes  halting  at  an  obstruction  as  if  in  hesitation 
and  piling  up  in  rude  masses,  then  rushing  onward 
again  with  greater  momentum  than  before.  It  was 
the  business  of  the  drivers  to  keep  this  unstable 
mass  constantly  moving  over  obstructions,  across 
waterfalls,  and  around  bends  of  the  stream.  Occa- 
sionally, in  spite  of  precautions,  a  jam  was  formed  to 
which,  unless  it  could  be  quickly  broken,  the  charg- 


68  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

ing  mass  behind  soon  added  huge  dimensions.  On 
the  wild  Chippewa  River,  in  particular,  jams  reached 
great  proportions.  In  the  spring  of  1869  one  gathered 
that  was  variously  estimated  to  contain  from 
100,000,000  to  130,000,000  feet  of  logs.  For  two 
miles  up  the  river  to  the  depth  of  from  twenty  to 
fifty  tiers,  the  pine  was  piled  and  wedged,  com- 
pletely obliterating  for  that  distance  all  sight  of 
water.^  Upon  such  a  confused  and  treacherous  mass 
the  hardy  drivers  ventured  with  their  iron-shod 
spikes,  seeking  with  practiced  eye  to  discover,  and 
if  possible  to  dislodge,  the  logs  that  formed  the  key  to 
the  tangle. 2  Many  a  daring  fellow  lost  his  life  in 
the  wild  rush  of  struggling  pine  that  followed  the 
successful  breaking  of  a  jam. 

With  the  growth  of  the  lumber  industry  in  Wis- 
consin its  pinery  streams  underwent  many  needed 
improvements.  Rapids,  bars,  and  waterfalls  were 
rendered  less  dangerous  for  driving  logs  and  running 
rafts;  sloughs  and  bayous  in  which  lumber  was 
likely  to  be  lost  were  closed;  and  booming  works  and 
log  harbors  of  immense  capacity  were  erected  for 
the  safe  storing  of  pine  during  the  annual  freshets. 
This  was  the  w^ork  partly  of  individual  millmen  and 
loggers,  partly  of  organizations  among  them.  It 
made  excellent  progress  on  all  the  important  logging 
streams  of  the  State,  but  particularly  on  the  Chip- 
pewa, the  unruly  waters  of  which  required  especial 
measures  of  control.  The  system  of  log  markings 
and   log   exchanges   in   vogue   among   millmen   was 

1  Eau  Claire  Free  Press,  May  6,  1869.     See  also  letter  of  George  F. 
Train  in  Chippewa  Herald,  June  4,  1870. 

2  Several  years  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  steam  engines  were  intro- 
duced to  aid  in  breaking  log  jams. 


LUMBERING  69 

likewise  extended  and  more  scrupulously  observed, 
a  matter  that  became  of  increasing  importance  as 
the  operations  on  each  river  assumed  ever  greater 
proportions. 

On  the  Chippewa  River  a  notable  invention  was 
made  in  1862  by  Levi  W.  Pond,  a  lumberman  of 
Eau  Claire.  This  consisted  of  the  sheer  or  fm  boom, 
an  ingenious  device  for  intercepting  and  turning  logs 
from  the  drive  into  the  pond  or  pocket  of  the  sawmill 
for  which  they  were  destined.  It  consisted  of  a  chain 
of  logs,  secured  at  one  end  to  the  river  bank,  upon 
which  had  been  arranged  a  number  of  sturdy,  col- 
lapsible rudders  or  fms.  By  merely  opening  or  closing 
the  fms  with  a  rope  held  by  the  operator  on  shore, 
the  boom  could  be  thrown  diagonally  across  the 
river  and  held  in  the  current  so  as  to  steer  the  on- 
coming logs  to  their  proper  destination  or,  when 
necessary,  could  be  withdrawn  to  permit  the  passage 
of  boats  and  rafts.  It  was  an  application  of  the 
principle  of  the  current  ferryboat  to  the  old  windlass 
or  anchored  boom  hitherto  in  general  use.  Patented 
by  Pond  in  1868,^  it  was  soon  in  use  on  every  logging 
stream  in  the  country  that  was  subject  to  much 
traffic,  and  it  played  a  part  by  no  means  unimportant 
in  the  expansion  of  the  logging  industry  of  Wisconsin. 

Sawmill  methods  were  similarly  undergoing  a 
rapid  development.  In  the  late  fifties  and  early 
sixties  the  circular  or  rotary  saw  was  just  coming 
into  general  use  in  Wisconsin  as  the  main  saw  of  the 
mill,    replacing    the    slower    "muley,"    the    cutting 

1  U.  S.  Patent  Office,  Report,  1868,  305.  See  also  Wis.  Lumberman, 
March,  1874,  386-91;  id.,  June,  1874,  249-57;  id.,  February,  1875,  425-26; 
T.  E.  Randall,  History  of  Chippewa  Valley  (Eau  Claire,  1875),  90-94. 


70  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

capacity  of  which  it  exceeded  more  than  ten  times. 
It  had  been  brought  to  the  State  as  early  as  1854, 
but  for  some  years  remained  an  uncertain  experi- 
ment. Few  sawyers  knew  how  to  dress  or  operate  it 
properly,  and  the  woes  of  those  who  were  hardy 
enough  to  give  it  a  trial  were  such  as  to  lead  to  the 
coinage  of  a  popular  expression,  "Don't  monkey  with 
the  buzz-saw."  The  early  circular  saws  were  exceed- 
ingly wasteful  of  lumber,  sawing  out  at  each  cut  a 
half-inch  kerf.  It  was  feared  that  a  thinner  saw 
would  burst,  or  become  heated,  or  fail  to  find  proper 
clearance  in  its  passage  through  the  log.^  It  is  to  be 
noted  as  a  characteristic  of  all  sawmill  innovations 
of  this  day  that  they  were  calculated  solely  to  secure 
an  increased  output  or  a  saving  of  labor.  Little 
effort  was  made  toward  effecting  a  saving  of  lumber 
since  timber  was  still  cheap  and  abundant.  To  a 
later  generation  remained  the  task  of  eliminating 
waste  in  the  operations  of  the  sawmill. 

The  new  circular  saws,  supplementing  the  improved 
gang  saws  of  various  patterns  in  use  at  the  time,  so 
greatly  increased  the  sawing  capacity  of  the  mills  that 
a  prompt  speeding  up  of  all  other  operations  became 
necessary.  The  changes  that  were  introduced  to 
meet  these  new  requirements  completely  transformed 
the  average  lumber  mill  within  a  few  years.  The 
movements  of  the  log  carriage,  which  carried  the 
log  to  the  saw,  were  found  to  be  too  slow,  and  they 
were  accelerated  by  the  inventions,  one  after  another, 
of  the  friction  feed,  the  wire  rope  feed,  and  the  steam 

^  The  double  rotary,  consisting  of  two  circulars,  one  running  above  the 
other,  was  an  important  improvement  over  the  single  rotary.  It  came 
into  use  in  Wisconsin  during  the  Civil  War. 


LUMBERING  71 

feed.^  In  1863  or  1864  the  double  edger  was  intro- 
duced, which  at  a  single  cut  trimmed  both  edges  of 
the  sawed  board  instead  of  but  one  as  heretofore. 
The  gang  edger,  which  followed  almost  immediately, 
carried  this  invention  still  further  toward  perfection. 

Near  the  close  of  the  sixties  steam  took  the  place 
of  manual  labor  in  handling  logs  on  their  passage 
from  the  mill  pond  to  the  saw,  the  "steam  nigger" 
and  other  similar  devices  rendering  this  possible. 
Somewhat  earher,  "live  rolls,"  driven  by  chains,  for 
carrying  sawed  boards  from  one  operation  to  another 
and  finally  depositing  them  in  the  mill  yard,  found 
their  way  into  the  larger  mills.  In  the  steam  mills, 
where  sawdust  was  burned  for  fuel,  the  labor  of  rows 
of  shovelers  was  dispensed  with  by  an  invention 
perfected  in  a  Chippewa  River  mill  in  1869,  which 
automatically  carried  the  waste  from  the  saws  to 
the  boiler. 2  These  and  dozens  of  other  improvements 
of  less  importance  were  accompanied  by  an  ever- 
increasing  efficiency  and  power  of  the  driving  engines, 
not  only  in  the  steam  mills  but  also  in  the  water- 
power  mills.  The  up-to-date  sawmill  of  1870  bore 
slight  resemblance  in  its  construction  or  equipment 
to  the  sawmill  of  1860,  and  the  process  of  develop- 
ment was  still  rapidly  going  on.^ 

These  changes  were  reflected  in  the  growing  output 

1  One  of  the  best  steam  feeds  on  the  market  was  perfected  and  patented 
by  D.  C.  Prescott  of  Marinette  in  1873.  The  steam  feed  was  often  referred 
to  as  the  "shot  gun  feed,"  for  when  the  steam  was  turned  on  it  literally 
shot  the  log  carriage  down  the  track  to  the  saw.  See  U.  S.  Patent  Office, 
Report,  March,  1873,  173-74. 

2  Chippewa  Herald,  April  30,  1870;  U.  S.  Patent  Office,  Report,  1869, 
282;  Wis.  Lumberman,  October,  1874,  152-54. 

*  For  an  excellent  account  of  the  evolution  of  sawmill  machinery  see 
Hotchkiss,  Lumber  Industry,  649-60. 


72  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

of  the  mills.  It  was  an  unusual  sawmill  in  1860  that 
produced  more  than  50,000  feet  of  sawed  lumber  in 
a  twelve-hour  day.  In  1870  the  great  mills  of  the 
Chippewa  Valley  were  tearing  out  lumber  at  the  rate 
of  100,000  to  200,000  feet  per  day.  The  millmen 
gloried  in  the  increasing  capacity  of  their  establish- 
ments, and  their  trials  of  speed  were  the  subject  of 
frequent  boasts  in  the  journals  of  rival  pinery  cities. 
The  immense  mill  of  Pound,  Halbert  &  Company 
at  Chippewa  Falls  was  able  in  1867  to  turn  out  in  a 
twelve-hour  run  207,400  feet.^  By  1873  this  mill 
could  maintain  during  an  entire  month  an  average 
daily  cut  of  325,000  feet  to  say  nothing  of  shingles, 
lath,  and  pickets. ^  In  1860  forty  mills  along  the  shores 
of  Green  Bay  turned  out  in  a  year  but  80,000,000 
feet  of  lumber.^  In  1873  a  single  great  corporation  in 
the  Chippewa  Valley  turned  out  under  one  roof 
more  than  half  that  amount.'' 

This  increasing  eflficiency  and  the  growing  costliness 
of  sawmill  machinery  not  only  stimulated  large-scale 
production  in  the  manufacture  of  lumber  but  en- 
couraged a  new  tendency  towards  integration  in  the 
industry.  Prior  to  the  fifties  sawmill  owners,  with 
some  notable  exceptions,  were  persons  of  limited 
capital,  whose  means  centered  in  their  equipment 
and  working  stock.  They  usually  purchased  raw  ma- 
terials delivered  to  them  at  their  mills;  often  they 
sawed  logs  merely  upon  commission  or  at  a  stipu- 
lated price  per  thousand  feet.  Land  speculators 
commonly  owned  the  standing  pine.    Men  of  capital 

1  Chippewa  Union  and  Times,  Aug.  24,  1867. 

2  Wis.  Lumberman,  January,  1874,  204-5. 
»Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1858-59,  401-5. 
*  Wis.  Lumberman,  January,  1874,  204-54. 


LUMBERING  73 

as  well  as  foresight,  they  bought  great  stretches  of 
the  forest  areas  as  soon  as  the  State,  the  nation, 
or  the  numerous  land-grant  companies  opened  them 
for  sale.  Upon  the  heels  of  the  surveyors  they  sent 
their  "timber  cruisers"  or  "explorers,"  wizards  of 
wood  lore,  to  select  and  enter  for  them  the  most 
desirable  tracts.  When  with  the  lapse  of  time  such 
holdings  had  acquired  value  they  disposed  of  them 
in  small  tracts,  sometimes  selling  land  and  all,  more 
often  parting  only  with  their  timber  rights,  "stump- 
age"  as  it  was  called,  and  retaining  title  to  the  land 
itself,  which  they  subsequently  sold  to  incoming 
settlers.^  Logging  contractors  were  the  lumbermen 
of  that  day,  who  for  a  stipulated  price  per  thousand 
feet  hewed  out  the  pine,  drove  it  down  the  streams, 
and  delivered  it  to  the  waiting  millmen.^  Other 
contractors,  owners  of  lake  vessels  in  the  northeastern 
pineries,  and  master  raft  pilots  in  the  Northwest 
carried  the  sawed  lumber  from  the  mills  to  market.^ 
The  sorting,  seasoning,  and  distributing  of  the  mill 
product  were  still  other  operations  that  were  left 
to  the  wholesalers  in  the  large  lumber  centers. 

This  entire  procedure  underwent  a  rapid  change 
with  the  emergence  during  our  period  of  mammoth 
corporations.    The  millmen  now  acquired  vast  tracts 

1  Ritchie,  Wisconsin  and  lis  Resources,  67-68.  See  also  Cyrus  Woodman 
Manuscripts  for  the  years  1857  to  1867  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Library. 
The  rates  paid  for  stumpage  varied  with  the  quality  of  the  pine  and  its  dis- 
tance from  an  available  stream.  During  the  early  years  of  the  Civil  War 
stumpage  rates  for  good  pine  in  northwestern  Wisconsin  were  $1  or  less  per 
1,000  feet.  Pine  owners  sometimes  contracted  to  sell  stumpage  to  loggers 
or  mill  owners  for  a  stipulated  percentage  of  the  lumber  manufactured 
therefrom. 

2  Isaac  Stephenson,  Recollections  of  a  Long  Life  (Chicago,  1915),  106-89. 

3  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  Ill,  439-40;  Burlington  Saturdaij  Evening  Post,  Dec. 
20,  1913  and  Jan.  31,  1914. 


74  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

of  pinelands^  from  which  their  own  employees  logged 
the  timber.  Their  own  rafting  crews  and  their  own 
lake  vessels  carried  the  sawed  lumber  to  market. 
They  maintained  retail  lumberyards  in  which  their 
product  was  sorted,  seasoned,  and  distributed.  They 
operated  flour  mills  where  they  ground  the  meal  for 
their  crews;  blacksmith  and  machine  shops  in  which 
they  manufactured  and  repaired  their  tools;  general 
merchandise  stores  in  which  they  sold  to  their  oper- 
atives and  to  others  the  clothing,  food,  and  supplies 
that  they  required;  while  some  even  went  so  far  as  to 
maintain  farms  upon  which  they  produced  the  pork, 
wheat,  and  fodder  consumed  by  their  working  force. 
A  conspicuous  instance  of  thorough  integration  in 
the  lumber  industry  in  Wisconsin  was  that  of  Knapp, 
Stout  &  Company  of  Menomonie,  said  at  that  time 
to  be  the  greatest  lumber  corporation  in  the  world. 
In  1873  this  firm  owned  115,000  acres  of  pinelands 
on  the  Chippewa  and  Menominee  rivers,  from  which 
it  cut  and  manufactured  during  the  year  in  its  various 
steam  and  water-power  mills  55,000,000  feet  of 
lumber,  20,000,000  shingles,  and  20,000,000  lath  and 
pickets.  It  maintained  a  foundry,  machine  shop, 
and  blacksmith  shop,  a  grain  warehouse  of  40,000 
bushels  capacity,  and  a  gristmill  in  which  its  yearly 
requirements  of  flour  were  ground.  It  owned  six  large 
farms  in  Dunn  and  Barron  counties,  containing 
6,000  or  7,000  acres  of  improved  land,  upon  which 
were  raised  its  supplies  of  wheat  and  pork.  It  con- 
ducted general  merchandise  stores  the  annual  sales  of 

*  For  data  relating  to  the  concentration  of  ownership  of  pinelands  in 
Wisconsin  see  Oshkosh  Journal,  Nov.  6,  1869;  Chippewa  Union  and 
Times,  Sept.  21,  1867;  Wisconsin  Assemhlif  Journal,  1871,  app.,  71. 


LUMBERING  75 

which  amounted  to  $750,000,  besides  large  lumber- 
yards at  Reed's  Landing,  Dubuque,  and  St.  Louis. 
Twelve  hundred  men,  conducting  its  manifold  activi- 
ties, were  upon  its  pay  roll  throughout  the  year.^ 

During  the  years  of  expansion  from  1863  to  1872 
there  emerged  from  the  multitude  of  inconspicuous 
lumber  operators  in  the  northern  pineries  nearly  all 
of  those  great  lumber  princes  who,  in  the  succeeding 
decade,  were  to  dominate  the  industry  and  play  a 
conspicuous  part  in  the  political  life  of  the  State. 
Isaac  Stephenson,  Nelson  Ludington,  Cadwallader 
C.  Washburn,  Daniel  Wells,  Philetus  Sawyer,  Thad- 
deus  Pound,  Daniel  Shaw,  J.  G.  Thorpe,  J.  H. 
Knapp,  A.  L.  Stout,  Alexander  Stewart,  and  numer- 
ous others  were  names  which  at  this  time  became 
familiar  to  most  well-informed  people  in  Wisconsin. 
It  was  during  these  years  also  that  Frederick  Weyer- 
haeuser became  interested  in  Chippewa  pinelands, 
and  to  exploit  them  organized  the  first,  and  for 
many  years  the  greatest,  of  the  Weyerhaeuser 
syndicates,  the  Mississippi  River  Logging  Company. 
Thus  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  marks  a  new  era  in 
the  history  of  Wisconsin  lumbering.  Though  many 
small  operators  continued  to  flourish,  and  old-time 
methods  were  still  employed  after  the  war,  the  in- 
dustry assumed  a  new  character  from  the  activities 
of  great  lumber  corporations. 

Within  the  pineries  there  grew  up,  as  the  industry 
developed,    a   number   of   thriving   sawmill   centers, 

1  Wis.  Lumberman,  October,  1873,  20;  id.,  January,  1874,  197,  201-7, 
254;  id..  May,  1874,  166-69.  In  the  same  references  may  be  found  excellent 
accounts  of  other  great  lumber  corporations  in  Wisconsin.  See  also  Osh- 
kosh  Northwestern,  Nov.  22,  1866;  Eau  Claire  Free  Press,  June  20,  July 
11,  and  Sept.  19,  1867;  Chippewa  Herald,  June  18,  1870. 


76  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

located  usually  upon  the  sites  of  waterfalls.  De- 
pendent for  the  most  part  upon  the  forest  for  their 
employment,  they  prospered  or  declined  as  the  lumber 
industry  rose  or  fell.  Marinette,  Oconto,  Peshtigo, 
Wausau,  Stevens  Point,  Grand  Rapids,  Black  River 
Falls,  Eau  Claire,  and  Chippewa  Falls  were  at  this 
time  the  most  prominent  of  the  pinery  towns.  Osh- 
kosh,  at  the  outlet  of  the  Wolf  pinery,  was  one  of  the 
best  known  of  the  Badger  sawmill  centers,  its  ex- 
tensive activities  having  already  brought  upon  it 
the  sobriquet,  "The  Sawdust  City."^  It  differed, 
however,  from  the  pinery  towns  in  that  it  maintained 
besides  its  sawmills  other  interests  of  more  or  less 
importance.  The  same  was  true  of  Green  Bay, 
Fond  du  Lac,  and  La  Crosse.  During  the  years  1863 
to  1872  all  of  these  cities  evidenced  the  prosperity 
of  the  lumber  industry  by  the  rapidity  of  their 
development.  Their  population  increased  more  than 
133  per  cent  during  the  decade  1860-70,  a  growth  four 
times  as  large  as  that  of  the  State  as  a  whole. ^ 

The  manufacture  of  shingles,  like  the  sawing  of 
lumber,  underwent  a  complete  transformation  during 
the  period  of  the  Civil  War.  Prior  to  1860  the  shingle 
industry  was  almost  wholly  in  the  hands  of  farmers. 
The  immigrants  who  settled  on  the  pine-clad  farms 
of  northern  Wisconsin,  and  in  particular  the  Germans 
and  Belgians  who  made  their  homes  in  the  north- 
eastern counties  of  the  State,  were  the  shingle- 
makers  or  "shingle  weavers"  as  they  were  popularly 
called.     The  industry  offered  them  and  their  large 

1  In  1866  Oshkosh  manufactured  85,000,000  feet  of  lumber  and  80,000,- 
000  shingles.  It  was  then  probably  the  greatest  lumber-manufacturing 
center  in  the  State. 

2  Compiled  from  the  U.  S.  census  reports  for  1860  and  1870. 


LUMBERING  77 

families  employment  during  the  long  winter  months, 
and  gave  value  to  pine  which  was  too  far  inland  to 
be  hauled  out  in  the  shape  of  saw  logs.  "It  is  not 
unusual,  during  the  sleighing  season,"  observed  the 
editor  of  the  Green  Bay  Advocate  in  1860,  "to  see 
caravans  of  shingle  teams  coming  into  Green  Bay, 
equalling  in  size  and  quaintness  what  we  hear  of 
those  which  make  annual  pilgrimages  from  Pembina 
to  St.  Paul."i  Manitowoc  was  the  center  of  the  trade, 
exporting  in  1860  approximately  40,000,000  shingles. ^ 
Along  the  shores  of  Green  Bay  and  on  the  lower 
Fox  and  the  upper  Wisconsin  were  numerous  other 
markets  to  which  the  farmers  carried  the  product  of 
their  winter's  toil.  Altogether  approximately 
175,000,000  shingles  were  thus  annually  manufac- 
tured within  the  State  at  the  beginning  of  the  Civil 
War. 

Machine-sawed  shingles  were  still  in  the  experi- 
mental stage  in  1860.  They  were  considered  inferior 
to  hand-shaved  shingles,  and  commanded  a  lower 
price.  However,  during  the  Civil  War  they  came 
more  and  more  into  favor  in  Chicago  and  distributing 
centers  on  the  Mississippi  River,  and  before  the  end 
of  the  war  had  almost  entirely  superseded  the  hand- 
made product.  No  doubt  this  development  was  due 
in  part  to  the  absence  of  large  numbers  of  the  shingle 
weavers  in  military  service;  in  part  to  the  same  forces 
which  were  encouraging  factory  production  in  other 
branches  of  industry.  During  the  decade  1860-70 
shingle  mills  developed  with  even  greater  rapidity 

1  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1858-59,  405. 

2  Chicago  Tribune,  Jan.  1,  1861.  In  1859  Manitowoc  shipped  to  Chicago 
approximately  55,000,000  shingles. 


78  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

than  sawmills,  and  the  evolution  of  shingle  machinery 
was  almost  as  surprising. 

As  a  result  of  such  improvements  Wisconsin  had 
become  the  greatest  shingle-manufacturing  State  in 
the  entire  Union  by  the  end  of  the  sixties.  During 
the  census  year  1869,  806,800,000  shingles  were  pro- 
duced,^ of  which  Brown  County,  at  the  foot  of  Green 
Bay,  alone  contributed  more  than  half.  The  city  of 
Green  Bay  in  the  meantime  had  captured  from  Mani- 
towoc the  supremacy  in  the  shingle  commerce. 
Favored  by  the  richness  of  her  timber  supply  and  the 
excellence  of  her  marketing  facilities,  her  trade  by 
1866  amounted  to  200,000,000  shingles.  Her  mayor, 
Anton  Klaus,  alone  manufactured  100,000,000  in  1869 
in  the  mills  under  his  control.  The  historic  fur-trade 
city  once  more  assumed  commercial  importance  and 
for  four  or  five  years  maintained  the  distinction  of 
being  the  greatest  primary  shingle  market  in  the  world. ^ 

Other  important  products  of  the  pine  forest  were 
lath,  of  which  the  State  produced  in  1871,  697,142,000, 
and  pickets,  of  which  it  manufactured  310,000,000.^ 
For  the  most  part  these  were  sawmill  by-products, 
affording  a  means  for  the  disposal  of  pine  slabs 
which  at  an  earlier  period  had  uniformly  been  wasted. 
As  for  the  hardwood  products,  the  manufacture  of 
oak  staves,  particularly  in  the  lower  Fox  Valley,  was 
a  growing  industry,  though  at  this  time  still  in  its 
infancy.^    In  the  lower  Fox  Valley,  also,  the  manu- 

1  U.  S.  Census,  1870,  III,  613. 

2  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Feb.  8,  1867  and  Feb.  12,  1870. 

'  Estimates  accompanying  a  map  of  Wisconsin  for  1872,  printed  by 
Silas  Farmer  &  Company  at  Detroit,  Mich.,  1872.  The  U.  S.  census  re- 
turns of  1870  for  these  items  are  incomplete. 

"The  manufacture  of  tight  barrel  staves  by  machinery  began  in  the 
lower  Fox  River  Valley  during  the  Civil  War.     It  gave  value  to  the  excel- 


LUMBERING  79 

facture  of  railroad  ties,  woodenware,  and  wagons 
consumed  a  limited  quantity  of  hardwoods.  Ship- 
building furnished  an  outlet  for  ship  timbers  and 
boards  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan,  Green  Bay, 
the  lower  Fox,  and  the  upper  Mississippi,  while  the 
tanning  of  leather  in  a  few  localities  along  Lake 
Michigan  and  the  lower  Fox  gave  value  to  the  bark 
of  the  otherwise  despised  hemlock.  All  in  all,  how- 
ever, the  manufacture  of  hardwoods  was  of  compara- 
tive insignificance  in  Wisconsin. 

As  we  turn  from  the  manufacture  to  the  marketing 
of  lumber,  a  geographical  consideration  at  once 
becomes  important.  The  pinery  streams  of  north- 
eastern Wisconsin,  it  will  be  recalled,  were  tributary 
to  Lake  Michigan,  while  those  of  northwestern 
Wisconsin  were  tributary  to  the  Mississippi  River. 
The  differing  conditions  of  water  depth,  current, 
and  wind  on  these  two  watercourses  necessitated  in 
the  pineries  tributary  to  each  corresponding  differ- 
ences in  the  methods  of  marketing  their  products. 

The  pineries  tributary  to  Lake  Michigan  employed 
as  carriers  a  considerable  fleet  of  vessels,  nearly  all 
of  the  sailing  type.^  Many  of  these  were  craft  that 
had  outlived  their  usefulness  in  the  more  profitable 
grain  and  merchandise  trade  but  were  still  good  for 
the  lumber  commerce,  inasmuch  as  pine  cargoes  were 

lent  white  oak  of  northeastern  Wisconsin,  which  previously  had  been  little 
used  except  for  cordwood.  Stave  mills  began  to  displace  shingle  mills  in 
Brown  County  in  the  early  seventies  as  a  result  of  the  rapid  exhaustion 
of  the  pine  of  that  region.  In  Wood  and  Clark  counties  also  the  industry 
grew  rapidly  with  the  advent  of  railroads. 

^  At  this  time  lake  vessels  could  not  take  on  their  cargoes  in  the  ordinary 
manner  from  docks  at  Lake  Michigan  and  Green  Bay  ports,  owing  to  the 
shallowness  of  harbors.  It  was  the  custom  to  raft  the  lumber  to  the 
schooners,  which  were  anchored  in  deep  water. 


80  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

not  injured  by  exposure  to  water  in  their  leaky 
bottoms. 

During  the  early  sixties  an  innovation  appeared  in 
this  mode  of  carrying  that  was  pregnant  with  possi- 
bilities not  only  for  the  lumber  but  for  the  grain  and 
flour  commerce  as  well.  Worn-out  sailing  vessels  were 
partially  stripped  of  their  rigging  and  given  in  charge  of 
powerful  steam  tugs,  by  them  to  be  hauled  back  and 
forth  to  market.  For  all  practical  purposes  this  trans- 
formed the  old  hulks  into  efTicient  steamers.  Usually 
some  of  their  sails  were  retained,  which  could  be  hoisted 
to  take  advantage  of  particularly  favorable  winds. 

A  further  development  of  this  practice  was  the 
displacement  of  tugs  by  propellers  of  a  type  known  as 
steam  barges.  The  latter  were  able  not  only  to  drag 
their  "hookers"  but  to  carry  enormous  cargoes  of 
lumber.  In  the  early  seventies  it  was  not  unusual 
to  see  a  steam  barge  and  a  consort  of  four  or  even 
more  laden  tows  in  tandem  formation  plowing  their 
steady  course  to  market.  The  economies  of  the  system 
brought  it  rapidly  into  favor,  and  before  many  years 
the  old  schooner  fleet  in  the  lumber  trade  depended 
upon  steam  rather  than  sails  for  its  motive  power. 

In  1862  the  activities  of  the  Lake  Michigan  lumber 
carriers  were  supplemented  by  the  extension  from 
Oshkosh  to  Green  Bay  of  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern 
Railroad,  the  first  great  lumber-carrying  railroad  to 
be  constructed  in  Wisconsin.  During  the  years 
between  1863  and  1870  this  line  carried  to  Chicago 
from  the  sawmill  towns  of  the  Green  Bay  and  Wolf 
River  pineries  1,125,500,000  shingles,  95,160,000 
feet  of  lumber,  13,250,000  lath,  and  6,000,000  staves.^ 

»  Chicago  Board  of  Trade,  Reports,  1863-70. 


LUMBERING  81 

Chicago  was  the  chief  market  of  the  two  north- 
eastern pinery  districts.  Milwaukee  and  Racine  con- 
sumed considerable  quantities  of  lumber  and  shingles 
but  their  receipts  did  not  compare  with  those  of  their 
great  southern  rival.  Chicago  was  the  greatest 
lumber  market  in  the  world.  Her  receipts  from  the 
forests  of  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  increased  fourfold 
during  the  decade  of  the  sixties.  The  output  of  lumber 
increased  from  262,494,625  feet  to  1,018,998,685 
feet;  of  shingles  from  127,894,000  to  652,091,000; 
and  of  lath  from  36,601,000  to  150,000,000.^  Her 
five  great  lumber-carrying  railroads  and  the  Illinois 
&  Michigan  Canal  distributed  these  vast  quantities 
of  pine  far  and  wide  over  the  southern  and  west- 
ern plains,  where  they  entered  into  the  fences,  barns, 
and  homes  of  the  immigrants  who  were  settling  the 
prairies. 

The  pinery  districts  tributary  to  the  Mississippi 
River  followed  the  picturesque  and  convenient  meth- 
od of  rafting  their  lumber  to  market.  Indeed,  the 
nature  of  their  streams  precluded  any  other  mode 
of  carrying  lumber  from  the  mills.  The  interesting 
process  of  constructing  a  raft  need  be  but  briefly 
described.  The  boards,  as  they  came  from  the  saws, 
were  piled  twelve  to  twenty  courses  deep,  fastened 
stoutly  together  to  form  so-called  "cribs,"  and  top- 
loaded  with  bundles  of  shingles  and  lath.  Six  or 
more  cribs  fastened  end  to  end  formed  a  "string"  or 
"rapids  piece,"  upon  which  the  hardy  raftsmen 
gaily  descended  the  most  dangerous  waterfalls,  usu- 
ally with  success,  sometimes,  however,  to  their 
sorrow.     Where  the  rivers  ran  quietly,  from  two  to 

1  Id.,  1860-70. 

6 


82  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

four  "pieces,"  the  number  varying  in  individual 
cases  as  well  as  upon  different  streams,  were  coupled 
side  by  side  to  form  a  river  raft.  Guided  fore  and 
aft  by  ponderous  sweeps,  but  propelled  chiefly  by 
the  force  of  the  current,  such  a  raft  floated  down  the 
river,  halted  now  and  then  to  be  divided  into  its 
constituent  parts  in  order  to  pass  some  difficult 
obstruction,  then  recoupled  to  go  on  as  before.^ 

The  romance  of  river  rafting  is  a  subject  over  which 
the  historian  would  fain  linger.  Especially  on  the 
wild  Wisconsin  was  the  life  of  the  raftsman  full  of 
thrilling  adventure.  The  Wisconsin  River  from  Point 
Bas  to  Merrill  is  a  succession  of  dangerous  rapids  and 
waterfalls,  surging  over  rocky  bottoms  at  a  speed  of 
from  ten  to  twenty  miles  an  hour.  To  pilot  a  clumsy 
"rapids  piece"  safely  over  these  steep  descents  of 
roaring  water,  where  a  single  slip  meant  to  be  dashed 
to  pieces  on  the  rocks  below,  called  for  cool  daring, 
strong  muscle,  and  consummate  skill.  It  was  hard 
and  rough  work,  the  crew  being  often  immersed  to 
the  waist  in  water  whence  the  chill  of  ice  and  snow 
had  not  yet  departed.  When  one  "rapids  piece"  was 
carried  safely  to  a  quiet  eddy  and  tied  up,  the  river- 
men  must  trot  back — "gigging  back"  it  was  popularly 
called — to  repeat  the  perilous  operation,  until  the 
whole  raft  was  over  the  falls.  Then  there  was  a  brief 
respite  until  the  next  obstruction  in  the  river  was 
reached. 

It  is  little  wonder  that  the  men  engaged  in  such 
work  were  rough  and  wild  in  character.   For  the  most 

1  The  methods  of  constructing  rafts  and  running  them  to  market  are 
described  in  Wis.  Hist.  Soc,  Proc,  1910,  171-89;  Wis.  Hist.  Colls., 
Ill,  435-5'2;  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1870,  372-74;  E.  E.  Ladu,  Early 
and  Late  Mosinee  (Wausau,  1907),  31-35. 


LUMBERING  83 

part  the}'  loved  to  drink,  gamble,  and  fight,  and  to 
the  lower  river  towns,  where  they  were  known  as 
"river  rats,"  they  were  a  source  of  constant  terror. 
Yet  they  were  generous  of  impulse,  courageous,  and 
above  all,  resourceful.  They  were  among  the  first  to 
enlist  for  the  war,  and  on  at  least  one  notable  occa- 
sion they  rendered  conspicuous  service  to  the  cause 
of  the  Union.  On  the  famous  though  disastrous  Red 
River  Expedition  of  1864  the  "pinery  boys"  of  the 
Twenty-third  and  the  Twenty-ninth  Wisconsin  regi- 
ments, led  by  Lieut. -Col.  Joseph  Bailey  of  Kilbourn, 
applied  to  a  difficult  military  problem  a  homely 
lumberman's  engineering  device  and  thereby  saved 
from  destruction  a  gunboat  fleet  worth  $2,000,000. 

Ordinarily  lumber  rafts  from  the  rivers  of  Wiscon- 
sin arrived  without  serious  mishap  at  the  Mississippi 
to  the  satisfaction  of  all  on  board,  for  then  the 
dangerous  work  of  the  journey  was  well  over.  Before 
continuing  down  the  Father  of  Waters  a  further 
consolidation  of  the  lumber  took  place.  From  eight 
to  eighteen  "strings"  were  combined  into  a  single 
great  hulk  known  as  a  Mississippi  River  fleet,  and 
upon  it  were  erected  the  cabins  of  the  crew  together 
with  a  number  of  rude  oars  or  sweeps  on  each  end. 
The  trip  down  the  Mississippi  to  the  towns  where 
the  lumber  was  sold  was  usually  uneventful,  en- 
livened, however,  by  drinking  and  fighting  on  the 
part  of  the  uneasy  raftsmen. 

The  average  Mississippi  River  raft  became  pro- 
gressively larger  as  the  industry  assumed  ever  greater 
proportions.  Before  1860  it  was  a  large  structure  that 
contained  more  than  500,000  feet  of  lumber.  By 
1864  those  of  average  size  contained  from  600,000 


84  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

to  1,000,000  feet,  with  deck  loads  of  a  million  shingles 
or  lath.  In  1870  the  great  lumber  companies  of  the 
Chippewa  River  were  sending  to  market  rafts  cover- 
ing from  three  to  four  acres  of  surface  and  containing 
from  2,000,000  to  2,600,000  feet  of  sawed  pine.^ 

In  1864  there  appeared  an  innovation  in  Mississippi 
River  rafting  which  soon  transformed  that  industry. 
It  consisted  in  towing,  or  more  correctly  speaking, 
pushing,  rafts  to  market  by  means  of  steamboats 
especially  designed  for  this  purpose. ^  Lumber  thus 
transported  arrived  at  its  destination  in  half  the 
time  consumed  when  the  current  and  sweeps  pro- 
vided the  sole  m.eans  of  propulsion.  In  nearly 
the  same  ratio  the  cost  of  shipment  was  reduced. 
For  a  number  of  years  sweeps  were  retained  at  the 
bow  of  rafts  to  guide  the  lumber  on  its  sinuous 
river  journey.  Eventually  even  these  were  replaced 
by  steamboats  known  in  the  river  vernacular  as 
bowboats.  Such  changes,  resulting  from  the  growth 
of  the  industry  and  the  high  price  of  labor  during 
the  Civil  War,  proved  so  successful  that  by  1873 
there  were  seventy-three  steamboats  engaged  in 
lumber  towing  on  the  upper  river.^ 

1  Chippewa  Herald,  July  16  and  Oct.  22,  1870. 

2  The  practice  originated  in  local  towing  on  the  slack  waters  of  those 
widenings  of  the  upper  Mississippi  and  St.  Croix  rivers  known  as  Lakes 
Pepin  and  St.  Croix.  It  was  customary  during  the  fifties  to  tow  lumber 
and  log  rafts  on  Lake  St.  Croix  from  Stillwater  to  Prescott,  permit  them 
to  float  thence  to  the  head  of  Lake  Pepin,  and  have  them  towed  again  by 
other  boats  from  the  latter  point  to  Reed's  Landing.  At  Reed's  Landing, 
a  notable  rafting  center,  they  were  set  afloat  for  the  remainder  of  the 
journey  down  the  Mississippi.  See  Burlington  Sat.  Evening  Post,  Dec. 
20,  1913,  Jan.  24,  1914,  May  29,  1915,  and  July  10,  1915;  E.  W.  Durant, 
"Lumbering  and  Steamboating  on  the  St.  Croix  River,"  in  Minnesota 
Historical  Collections,  X,  pt.  ii,  663-65. 

8  Wis.  Hist.  Soc,  Proc,  1906,  214;  Wis.  Lumberman,  February,  1874, 323. 


LUMBERING  85 

On  the  Mississippi  there  was  no  great  lumber 
market  during  our  period  that  could  be  compared  to 
Chicago.  Badger  millmen  sent  rafts  to  St.  Louis  as 
early  as  1838,  but  the  Missouri  metropolis  at  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War  handled  not  much  more  of 
their  product  than  Iowa  and  Illinois  river  towns. 
Every  town  or  city  on  the  Mississippi  River  from 
Prairie  du  Chien  to  St.  Louis  was  to  some  extent  a 
lumber  market.  Those  that  were  situated  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  river,  in  Iowa,  and  more  especially 
those  that  had  railroad  connections  with  the  interior 
rapidly  built  up  their  trade. ^  Iowa  river  towns  re- 
ceived and  distributed  at  this  time  more  than  half  of 
the  total  product  of  the  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota 
pineries.  In  1869  they  received  some  450,000,000 
feet  of  lumber  of  which  Dubuque  took  81,776,440; 
Burlington,  60,000,000;  and  Davenport,  30,000,000.2 
St.  Louis,  too,  by  1869,  as  a  result  of  the  expansion  of 
her  railroad  lines,  was  striding  swiftly  toward  the 
proud  position  in  the  lumber  trade  which  she  later 
occupied.  Over  the  railroad  lines  of  these  river  towns 
Wisconsin  pine  found  its  way  as  far  west  as  Nebraska 
and  as  far  south  as  Missouri. 

The  tempting  trade  of  the  treeless  plains  west  of 
the  Mississippi  River  was  not  only  a  source  of  com- 
petition between  the  river  towns  and  Chicago  but 
a  source  of  ambitious  hope  also  to  the  cities  of  the 
lower  Fox  Valley.  Oshkosh  in  particular  saw  beyond 
the  Mississippi  River  alluring  prospects  of  a  great 
commerce,   the  realization  of  which  depended,   she 

'  By  far  the  greatest  portion  of  the  lumber  from  the  northwestern 
pineries  of  Wisconsin  was  consumed  west  of  the  Mississippi  River. 
^  St.  Louis  Union  Merchants'  Exchange,  Report,  1869,  72-73. 


86  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

was  sure,  on  the  improvement  of  the  Fox-Wisconsin 
river  route.  In  the  legislature  of  the  State  and  in 
the  halls  of  Congress,  therefore,  Oshkosh  became  the 
new  champion  of  this  much-discussed  and  long- 
delayed  enterprise.  During  the  later  sixties  and  early 
seventies  her  newspapers  never  ceased  to  print 
glowing  predictions  of  the  vast  commerce  that  would 
follow  the  opening  of  the  new  route  to  the  West, 
accompanied  by  demands  that  the  work  be  at  once 
undertaken. 

The  Fox- Wisconsin  Canal  was  only  one  of  the  many 
schemes  for  internal  improvement  that  were  being 
advanced  by  the  lumber  interests  of  the  State. ^  Every 
pinery  town  in  northern  Wisconsin  had  some  pet  rail- 
way project  that  it  was  hopefully  urging  in  season 
and  out.  While  the  southern  half  of  the  State  was 
groaning  under  the  exactions  of  overland  carriers 
and  demanding  legislative  relief  therefrom,  the  north- 
ern half  with  equal  earnestness  was  calling  for  new 
encouragement  to  railroad  construction  and  roundly 
denouncing  any  movement  that  would  frighten 
railway  capital  from  the  State.  Every  internal 
improvement  scheme  found  ready  approval  in  the 
northern  section,  and  as  we  shall  see  in  a  future 
chapter  this  region  was  ready  to  forego  constitu- 
tional safeguards  in  its  zeal  for  increased  transporta- 
tion. 

In  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  northern  Wisconsin, 
however,  it  was  not  until  near  the  close  of  the  decade 
1860-70  that  the  first  railroads  arrived  in  the  heart 

'  The  Sturgeon  Bay  Ship  Canal  was  an  improvement  of  much  impor- 
tance to  the  lumber  interests  of  northeastern  Wisconsin.  Its  early  con- 
struction is  to  be  attributed  to  the  influence  of  prominent  lumbermen  of 
this  section,  notably  Isaac  Stephenson. 


LUMBERING  87 

of  the  pineries.  The  transformation  that  these 
railroads  were  destined  to  bring  about  in  the  methods 
of  manufacturing  and  marketing  lumber  was  seen 
but  dimly,  therefore,  during  our  period.^  However, 
on  at  least  one  railroad  line  significant  changes  took 
place.  It  will  be  recalled  that  the  Wisconsin  River 
was  the  least  satisfactory  rafting  stream  in  the  State, 
and  that  the  pineries  upon  its  headwaters  were,  as 
a  consequence,  unable  during  the  decade  of  the  sixties 
to  maintain  their  former  supremacy.  It  was  in  the 
Wisconsin  River  district,  therefore,  that  railroad 
transportation  first  assumed  importance,  and  it  was 
here  that  the  changes  which  eventually  revolution- 
ized the  lumber  industry  in  Wisconsin  first  appeared. 

A  striking  innovation  that  arrived  as  an  accom- 
paniment of  railroad  transportation  in  the  Wisconsin 
River  district  was  the  portable  sawmill.  This  develop- 
ment made  feasible  the  manufacture  of  lumber  in 
the  heart  of  the  forest.  However,  the  change  did  not 
noticeably  affect  the  industry  until  a  later  period, 
and  to  a  later  period  its  discussion  properly  belongs. ^ 

Similarly  in  the  transportation  of  lumber,  rail- 
roads afforded  the  pinery  streams  but  little  serious 
competition.  The  bulky  forest  product  could  be 
carried  to  market  by  water  at  one-tenth  the  cost  of 

^  One  of  the  chief  functions  of  the  pinery  railroads  at  this  time  was  to 
carry  supplies  to  the  logging  camps  and  sawmill  towns,  thus  saving  the 
expense  of  long  hauls  by  wagon.  Among  the  early  pinery  railroads  the 
Chicago  &  Northwestern,  the  W^isconsin  Central,  the  West  Wisconsin,  the 
Green  Bay  &  Lake  Pepin,  and  the  Wisconsin  Valley  were  most  important. 

2  In  1866  a  destructive  freshet  on  the  Chippewa  River  carried  thousands 
of  logs  past  all  the  Chippewa  sawmills,  strewing  them  in  great  quantities 
upon  the  lower  river  bottoms.  To  manufacture  these  into  lumber  several 
portable  sawmills  were  established  by  Chippewa  River  millmen.  With 
such  exceptions,  however,  portable  sawmills  were  unknown  in  Wisconsin 
prior  to  the  advent  of  the  railroads. 


88  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

overland  shipment.  To  be  sure,  considerable  losses 
of  material  and  labor  were  involved  in  the  construc- 
tion of  rafts,  and  the  boards  arrived  at  market  water- 
soaked  and  covered  with  silt;  but  in  the  early  days 
these  were  less  important  considerations  than  the 
cheapness  of  transit.  Limited  quantities  of  pine  were 
shipped  from  the  forest  to  Milwaukee  and  Chicago 
by  way  of  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  and  the  several 
railroads  running  into  the  Wisconsin  River  district. 
Nine-tenths  of  all  the  lumber  produced  in  the  State 
during  the  seventies,  however,  found  its  way  to  mar- 
ket via  the  Mississippi  River  and  Lake  Michigan. 

One  of  the  advantages  which  Wisconsin  sawmill 
owners  hoped  to  derive  from  railroad  transportation 
was  freedom  from  the  domination  of  the  lumber 
wholesaler.  The  latter  was  at  this  time  an  important 
figure  in  the  economy  of  the  forest  industry.  He  was 
often  its  capitalist,  loaning  to  needy  millmen,  upon 
the  security  of  the  next  season's  sawing,  the  money 
necessary  to  stock  their  mills  and  to  pay  their  oper- 
ating expenses.^  He  occupied  a  position  of  vantage, 
particularly  along  the  Mississippi  River,  so  long  as 
lumbermen  were  limited  in  their  transportation 
entirely  to  water  routes.  He  knew  that  a  large  part 
of  the  season's  sawing  must  come  down  to  market  on 
the  spring  freshets,  and  that  the  ordinary  millman 
must  sell  his  product  at  once  in  order  to  secure  the 
means  for  carrying  on  the  following  season's  opera- 
tions. He  was  thus  able  to  purchase  his  stock  at  the 
low  prices  incident  upon  a  crowded  market,  while 
he  could  make  his  sales  at  leisure. 

Wisconsin  lumbermen  hoped  that  overland  trans- 

1  See  Hotchkiss,  Lumber  Industry,  438. 


LUMBERING  89 

portation  would  remove  this  difficulty;  that  it  would 
enable  them  to  withhold  their  product  from  market 
until  prices  were  favorable.  Indeed,  by  establishing 
direct  relations  with  retailers  they  anticipated  en- 
tirely eliminating  the  middleman.  During  the  early 
seventies  a  few  shipments  of  lumber  actually  were 
made  directly  from  manufacturer  to  retailer,  much 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  lumber  journals  of  the  day. 
For  the  most  part,  however,  conditions  remained 
practically  unchanged  during  the  sixties  and  seventies. 

A  number  of  practical  considerations  served  to  in- 
trench the  wholesaler  in  his  position.  Farmers,  lack- 
ing communication  with  the  pineries,  ordinarily  pur- 
chased their  lumber  where  they  sold  their  produce. 
Again,  the  wholesaler  at  this  time  was  not  merely 
a  distributor  of  lumber.  He  performed  the  important 
service  of  sorting  and  seasoning  the  mill  product,  a 
function  that  the  millmen  as  a  rule  were  obliged  to 
forego  because  of  their  financial  necessities.  The 
former  remained,  therefore,  throughout  our  period 
undisturbed  in  his  sphere. 

In  lumbering  as  in  agriculture  Wisconsin  was 
making  great  strides  during  the  crucial  years  of  the 
Civil  War.  The  untimbered  states  west  and  south- 
west of  Lake  Michigan  w^ere  filling  with  settlers, 
and  the  marvelous  rapidity  of  their  development 
was  the  measure  of  the  expansion  of  the  Badger 
lumber  industry.  The  pineries,  which  had  been 
exploited  in  a  small  way  before  the  outbreak  of  the 
war,  witnessed  at  this  time  an  era  of  remarkable 
growth,  which  was  to  continue  until  Wisconsin  had 
overtaken  Michigan  as  a  lumber  producer  and  had 
won  first  place  among  the  lumber  states  of  the  Union. 


CHAPTER  III 
LUMBERING 

As  the  lumber  industry  expanded  in  Wisconsin 
there  arose  within  it  two  conflicting  interests  whose 
antagonisms  and  contentions,  resembling  nothing  so 
much  as  the  quarrels  of  rival  fur-trade  companies  in 
the  Northwest  at  an  earlier  day,  contributed  a  new 
chapter  of  romance  to  the  industrial  history  of  the 
State.  On  one  hand  were  arrayed  the  sawmill  inter- 
ests within  the  pineries,  whose  ambition  was  to  man- 
ufacture into  lumber,  without  interference,  all  the 
pine  that  was  cut  from  the  Wisconsin  forests;  on 
the  other  were  the  log-driving  interests  whose  func- 
tion was  to  supply  raw  material  to  the  immense  mills 
that  lined  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  shores  of 
Green  Bay  and  Lake  Winnebago.  Nearly  every 
important  pinery  stream  in  the  State  faced  this  con- 
flict of  interests  during  the  period  from  1857  to  1873, 
and  the  deciding  clash  in  each  case  came  during  the 
decade  of  the  sixties. 

Prior  to  1860  this  question  was  nowhere  regarded 
as  important.  Nearly  all  the  logs  cut  in  the  northern 
forests  of  Wisconsin  were  manufactured  into  lumber 
within  the  pineries  themselves.  Perhaps  a  third  of 
the  small  annual  cut  of  the  St.  Croix  and  the  Black 
was  driven  down  the  Mississippi  River  to  supply  the 
sawmills  along  its  banks  in  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and 
Illinois.  On  the  Chippewa  River  the  quantity  of  pine 
thus  disposed   of  was  negligible;  on   the   Wisconsin 

[90  1 


LUMBERING  91 

there  was  practically  none.  During  the  closing  years 
of  the  Civil  War,  however,  the  Mississippi  River  mills 
began  to  lay  heavier  tribute  upon  the  Wisconsin 
forests.  The  alarmed  sawmill  owners  of  Wisconsin 
found  as  a  result  that  they  were  obliged  to  pay 
higher  prices  for  logs.  Even  more  disquieting  was 
the  fact  that  dangerous  sawmill  competitors  were 
securing  a  foothold  in  the  very  heart  of  their  markets. 
On  the  Chippewa,  Black,  and  St.  Croix  log  driving 
for  lower  mills  assumed  particularly  menacing  pro- 
portions, and  upon  these  streams  resulting  con- 
troversies were  correspondingly  sharp. 

The  most  spectacular  clash  occurred  upon  the 
Chippewa  River,  and  is  known  as  the  Beef  Slough 
War.  This  may  be  described  in  some  detail,  for  not 
only  was  it  typical  of  the  others,  but  it  was  repre- 
sentative also  of  the  standard  of  business  ethics  of 
the  time.  It  foreshadowed,  moreover,  new  develop- 
ments in  the  lumber  industry  of  the  Northwest. 
Out  of  it  there  arose  the  greatest  lumber  syndicate 
of  its  day,  an  organization  that  constituted  the 
beginning  of  what  is  now  the  strongest  lumber  power 
on  the  North  American  continent. 

It  so  happens  that  the  Chippewa  River  near  its 
mouth  divides  into  two  channels,  one  of  which  is  for 
the  most  part  unnavigable  and  is  commonly  known 
as  Beef  Slough.  Beef  Slough  at  that  time  formed  an 
admirable  harbor  for  the  sorting  and  rafting  of  such 
logs  as  a  log-driving  company  might  wish  to  take 
down  the  Mississippi  River.  The  millmen  of  the 
Chippewa  River  appreciated  this  fact  and  near  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War  set  about  forestalling  its  use 
in  any  such  capacity.   They  purchased  the  land  at  its 


92  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

entrance  and  in  1866  secured  from  the  legislature 
special  logging  privileges  there,^  which  they  had  no 
intention  of  using  but  only  of  holding  against  possible 
future  users. 

Early  in  1867  another  association,  consisting  of 
prominent  loggers  of  Michigan,  Fond  du  Lac,  and 
Oshkosh,  who  had  interests  in  the  sawmills  on  the 
Mississippi  River,  organized  a  log-driving  association 
known  as  the  Beef  Slough  Manufacturing,  Booming, 
Log  Driving  &  Transportation  Company  and  applied 
to  the  legislature  for  a  charter  to  erect  within  Beef 
Slough  the  booms  and  piers  necessary  for  their  work. 
The  bill  was  defeated,  and  immediately  the  victorious 
millmen  of  Eau  Claire  and  Menomonie  sent  a  crew 
of  some  hundreds  of  their  employees  with  rafts  of 
slabs  to  close  up  the  entrance  to  the  menacing  Slough. 
The  logging  company  promptly  swore  out  an  in- 
junction against  the  millmen,  but  not  soon  enough 
to  prevent  the  completion  of  the  dam.  The  next  step 
which  it  took  was  more  effective,  however.  Shrewdly 
dispossessing  the  millmen  of  their  ownership  of  the 
head  of  the  Slough  by  prevailing  upon  friendly  local 
authorities  to  condemn  the  land  for  a  public  highway, 
they  forcibly  tore  out  the  offending  obstruction.  The 
latter  undertaking  threatened  for  a  time  to  lead  to 
a  pitched  battle  between  the  opposing  sawmill  and 
log-driving  factions,  but  fortunately  resulted  only 
in  a  wordy  war  of  rivermen's  English. 

Such  was  the  status  of  the  controversy  when  the 
legislature  of  1869  convened.  The  logging  company 
again  made  an  effort  to  secure  a  charter,  but  its  bill 
was  decisively  defeated  in  the  Assembly  near  the 

*  Wisconsin  Private  Laws,  1866,  chap.  18L 


LUMBERING  93 

close  of  the  session.  A  few  days  after  the  vote, 
however,  an  innocent-appearing  measure  was  intro- 
duced in  the  Senate  providing  for  the  incorporation 
of  the  Portage  City  Gas  Light  Company.  It  was  less 
than  a  week  before  adjournment.  The  bill  was  pushed 
through  the  legislature  with  the  rush  of  business  that 
always  attends  the  close  of  sessions  and  was  signed 
by  the  governor  a  few  hours  before  the  appointed 
time  for  adjournment. 

Several  days  after  the  Portage  City  bill  had  thus 
become  law  it  was  learned  that  hidden  away  near  its 
close  was  the  following  provision:  "In  all  cases  where 
any  franchise  or  privilege  has  been  or  shall  be  granted 
by  law  to  several  persons,  the  grant  shall  be  deemed 
several  as  well  as  joint,  so  that  one  or  more  may 
accept  and  exercise  the  franchise  alone. "^  The 
logging  company  had  won  its  fight,  for  one  of  its 
members  was  a  millman  who  in  1866  had  been  asso- 
ciated with  the  Chippewa  millmen  as  an  incorporator 
in  their  unused  charter.  It  was  but  a  matter  of  form 
for  him  to  assign  to  his  new  associates  the  rights  and 
privileges  that  the  secret  joker  in  the  Portage  City 
bill  had  given  him.  The  public  chuckled  over  the 
sly  maneuver,  while  the  two  belligerents  prepared 
for  a  renewal  of  hostilities. 

Within  a  few  months  the  season  for  the  log  drive 
from  the  pineries  was  at  hand.  The  logging  company 
served  notice  upon  the  millmen  along  the  Chippewa 
to  pass  unmolested  all  logs  bearing  the  Beef  Slough 
mark.  This  the  sawmill  owners  were  not  only  un- 
willing but  unable  to  do,  for  only  two  of  them  pos- 
sessed the  necessary  assorting  facilities.     Moreover, 

^Id.,  1868,  chap.  331. 


94  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

they  were  unwilling  to  agree  upon  a  system  of  log 
exchanges  such  as  had  heretofore  governed  opera- 
tions on  the  river.  Here  was  a  deadlock  in  which 
force  again  proved  to  be  the  only  arbiter.  The  Beef 
Slough  log  drivers,  numbering  seventy-five  rough, 
belligerent  fellows,  were  not  loth  on  their  way  down 
from  the  pineries  to  cut  open  whatever  sawmill 
reservoirs  they  found  containing  any  of  their  logs, 
taking  from  these  not  only  their  own  logs  but  large 
quantities  of  others.  In  Eau  Claire  County  there 
awaited  them  the  opposing  army  of  the  sawmill 
owners,  numbering  some  200  equally  rough  and  de- 
termined men  led  by  the  county  sheriff.  As  the 
two  forces  approached  the  excitement  and  danger 
of  a  bloody  clash  increased.  Fortunately,  however, 
an  open  battle  was  averted.  The  sawmill  army  was 
too  overwhelming  to  be  resisted,  and  the  leaders  of 
the  drive  were  obliged  to  submit  to  arrest.  A  settle- 
ment and  an  armed  truce  were  eventually  effected 
and  the  drivers  continued  on  their  way.^ 

For  several  years  after  1868  the  disputes  and  con- 
tentions of  the  log-driving  and  sawmill  interests  of 
the  Chippewa  River  continued.  In  1870  the  Beef 
Slough  Company  contrived  to  secure  from  the  legis- 
lature a  confirmation  and  extension  of  its  charter, 
but  by  this  time  its  stormy  life  had  brought  it  to 
bankruptcy.  Its  improvements  were  leased  at  the 
close  of  1870  to  an  association  of  Mississippi  River 
sawmill  owners,  among  whom  the  leading  spirit  was 
Frederick  Weyerhaeuser,  the  present  lumber  king 
of  America.    Early  in  1871  this  association  organized 

'  See  Eau  Claire  Free  Press   and  Chippewa  Union  and  Times  for  April 
and  May,  1868. 


LUMBERING  95 

the  Mississippi  River  Logging  Company,  which  soon 
became  the  greatest  lumber  syndicate  of  its  time. 

In  the  meantime  the  growth  of  the  log  traffic  was 
surpassing  even  the  gloomiest  predictions  of  the  Wis- 
consin sawmill  owners.  The  quantity  of  logs  received 
and  rafted  at  Beef  Slough  increased  from  a  meager 
12,000,000  feet  in  1868  to  274,367,900  feet  in  1873. ^ 
On  the  Black  the  traffic  rose  abruptly  from  6,000,000 
feet  in  1864  to  46,557,700  feet  in  1865  and  195,398,830 
feet  in  1873.^  "In  a  few  years,"  complained  the  saw- 
mill owners  of  Black  River  Falls  in  a  remonstrance 
to  the  legislature,  "the  wealthiest  portion  of  the 
[Black  River]  pineries  will  present  nothing  but  a 
vast  and  gloomy  wilderness  of  pine  stumps."^ 

Log  rafting  on  the  Mississippi  was  revolutionized 
during  the  later  sixties  when  the  old  method  of 
floating  the  rafts  to  market  was  abandoned  for  the 
more  expeditious  system  of  steamboat  towing.  This 
innovation,  successfully  tried  for  the  first  time  in 
1865,  was  but  an  adaptation  of  the  similar  departure 
of  the  year  before  in  the  marketing  of  sawed  lumber. 
It  proved  an  important  factor  in  the  swift  growth 
of  the  log-driving  industry  from  1863  to  1872.'* 

1  Hotchkiss,  Lumber  Industry,  635-36;  W^is.  Assem.  Jour.,  1872,  app., 
105-36;  Eau  Claire  Free  Press,  May  28,  1868. 

2  Hotchkiss,  Lumber  Industry,  501.  The  log-driving  company  on  the 
Black  River,  which  was  known  as  the  Black  River  Improvement  Associa- 
tion, was  incorporated  in  1864.  For  its  early  history  see  Usher,  Wisconsin, 
I,  182-84. 

3  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1867,  1266-1272.  The  sawmill  owners  at  Black 
River  Falls  made  a  determined  effort  in  1867  to  secure  a  repeal  of  the  char- 
ter of  the  log-driving  association  responsible  for  these  increases  but  failed. 

*  The  methods  employed  in  towing  fleets  of  logs  down  the  lower  Wolf 
River  to  Oshkosh,  Fond  du  Lac,  and  other  cities  on  Lake  Winnebago 
differed  somewhat  from  those  employed  on  the  Mississippi  River.  For 
a  complete  description  of  these  see  History  of  Oshkosh  (Oshkosh,  1867), 


96    :,:  ILL  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

In  the  construction  of  log  rafts,  however,  the  waste- 
ful methods  of  the  earlier  period  persisted.  It  was 
the  practice  at  that  time  to  bind  the  logs  together 
by  pinning  them  to  long,  stout  poles,  a  process  which 
involved  boring  two  large  augur  holes  into  both  ends 
of  every  piece  of  timber  in  the  raft.  Not  only  was 
this  costly  on  account  of  wasted  lumber  but  it  was 
also  a  waste  of  labor,  yet  it  was  not  until  the  later 
seventies  that  the  modern  "brailed"  raft  came  into 
use,  whereby  the  pine  was  merely  surrounded  and 
held  in  place  by  a  boom  or  chain  of  logs  and  a  net- 
work of  skillfully  arranged  ropes. 

Wisconsin  lumbermen  came  into  frequent  collision 
with  other  interests  in  the  State  in  their  efforts  to 
maintain  unobstructed  the  navigation  of  their  lum- 
bering streams.  They  resisted  vigorously,  but  without 
success,  the  bridging  of  the  Mississippi  by  the  east 
and  west  railroads  seeking  to  enter  Minnesota  and 
Iowa.  The  construction  of  dams  for  water-power 
purposes  on  navigable  streams  led  to  many  contro- 
versies and  sometimes  to  the  exercise  of  direct  force. 
Particularly  was  this  true  on  the  Wisconsin  River, 
where  raft  running  was  at  best  extremely  difficult.^ 
The  most  notable  contest  of  this  kind  was  one  which 
arose  out  of  the  rivalries  of  two  sawmill  communities 
on  the  Chippewa  River,  a  contest  which  in  its  various 
forms  extended  over  a  period  of  fifteen  years. 

74.    In  1873  the  rafting  of  logs  on  Lake  Michigan  was  begun,  about  2,000,- 
000  feet  being  transported  thus  from  Ludington,  Mich.,  to  Chicago. 

1  The  conflict  of  interest  on  the  Wisconsin  River  centered  about  the 
erection  of  a  dam  for  manufacturing  purposes  at  tlie  Kilbourn  Dells.  The 
controversy  had  its  origin  as  far  back  as  1855  when  the  Wisconsin  River 
Hydraulic  Company  was  incorporated.  During  the  sixties  the  contest 
several  times  found  its  way  into  the  legislature,  and  in  the  early  seventies 
was  carried  to  the  courts. 


RUNNING  THE  KILBOURN  DAM 
From  a  photograph  in  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Library 


LUMBERING  97 

The  immediate  cause  of  the  Chippewa  Dells 
controversy,  as  it  was  called,  was  a  project  for 
erecting  in  the  Chippewa  River,  at  a  point  just 
above  Eau  Claire,  a  comprehensive  system  of  dams, 
piers,  and  booms,  for  the  purpose  of  holding  and 
assorting  logs.  Such  a  harbor  the  millmen  of  Eau 
Claire  asserted  was  indispensable  to  their  prosperity. 
Not  only  would  it  prevent  serious  losses  of  their  logs 
in  the  annual  spring  freshets,  but  it  would  obviate 
the  necessity  for  the  vexatious  system  of  log  ex- 
changes hitherto  in  general  use.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  millmen  of  Chippewa  Falls,  a  few  miles  above 
Eau  Claire,  saw  in  the  project  only  a  selfish  scheme  to 
build  up  the  industry  of  the  lower  town  at  their 
expense.  The  Dells  improvement  they  maintained 
would  not  only  put  an  end  to  their  prosperity  but 
would  destroy  the  free  navigation  of  the  Chippewa 
River,  an  objection  that  could  not  be  urged  against 
an  improvement  of  their  own  which  they  proposed  to 
make  above  Chippewa  Falls. ^ 

As  early  as  1860  a  bill  passed  both  houses  of  the 
Wisconsin  legislature  authorizing  the  construction 
of  the  proposed  dam  above  Eau  Claire  at  the  Chip- 
pewa Dells.  However,  Thaddeus  Pound,  a  prominent 
Chippewa  Falls  lumberman,  who  was  then  enrolling 
clerk  of  the  Assembly,  prevailed  upon  Governor 
Randall  to  veto  it  on  the  ground  that  it  contained 
no  provision  for  locks.  In  1867  the  fight  was  renewed, 
but  again  the  Eau  Claire  project  was  defeated.  In 
1870  a  bill  was  a  third  time  introduced,  and  a  third 

^The  Chippewa  Falls  project,  known  as  the  Eagle  Rapids  Flooding 
Dam,  was  constructed  in  1872-73  with  a  storage  capacity  of  100,000,000 
feet  of  logs. 
7 


98  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

time  defeated,  after  a  bitter  contest  in  which  both 
sides  charged  that  money  had  been  improperly  used. 

Nothing  daunted  by  these  repeated  defeats,  the 
Eau  Claire  faction  returned  to  the  conflict  in  1871 
with  a  new  bill,  carefully  drawn  and  strongly  sup- 
ported. The  battle  which  now  ensued  was  one  such 
as  the  State  had  not  witnessed  since  the  memorable 
days  of  the  railroad  land-grant  controversies.  Though 
the  dispute  was  purely  local,  the  press  of  the  State 
warmly  took  sides.  Powerful  lobbies  composed  of 
the  shrewdest  politicians  and  keenest  legal  talent  of 
Wisconsin  were  maintained  at  great  expense  in 
Madison  by  both  contestants.  Rumors  of  corruption 
were  soon  busily  flying  about  the  capitol.  An  investi- 
gation was  held,  during  the  course  of  which  a  sponsor 
of  the  disputed  bill  frankly  confessed  to  attempting 
to  bribe  a  needy  assemblyman.^  Notwithstanding 
this  offense  his  name  was  retained  by  the  Assembly 
as  a  beneficiary  of  the  measure.  The  Senate  was  even 
more  brazen.  It  sent  to  decisive  defeat  a  resolution 
to  strike  out  the  offender's  name,  after  which  it  per- 
mitted the  bill  to  pass.^ 

The  measure  was  sent  for  signature  to  Governor 
Fairchild.  He  was  convinced  that  the  narrow  ma- 
jorities by  which  it  had  been  carried  in  both  houses 
had  been  secured  dishonestly.  In  a  ringing  message 
he  rebuked  the  legislature  for  its  apparent  acquies- 
cence in  corruption  and  returned  the  measure  with  his 
veto.^  The  friends  of  the  bill  endeavored  to  repass 
it  but  failed.    A  second  investigation  more  thorough 

1  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1871,  710,  801-20,  1000-1002. 

^Ibid.,  836-38,  1000-1002;  Wisconsin  Senate  Journal,  1871,  711-12. 

8  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1871,  1000-1002. 


LUMBERING  99 

than  the  first  was  now  held.  During  its  course  legis- 
lators told  of  having  rolls  of  greenbacks  slipped 
into  their  pockets,  of  receiving  offers  of  bribes  varying 
from  $100  to  $1,000,  of  being  urged  in  a  friendly 
spirit  by  fellow-members  and  others  not  to  be  punc- 
tilious, but  to  share  in  the  general  and  profitable 
grafting.  Some  acknowledged  having  accepted  from 
the  contestants  loans  of  considerable  sums  of  money. 
Among  the  men  who  had  given  such  loans  were  State 
officials  occupying  positions  of  high  trust.  Though 
the  investigation  failed  to  prove  direct  bribe  taking 
against  any  of  the  legislators,  it  revealed  a  moral  tone 
about  the  capitol  that  was  far  from  gratifying.^ 

The  subsequent  history  of  the  Dells  controversy 
was  less  sensational.  It  centered  about  the  efforts 
of  the  city  of  Eau  Claire  to  secure  as  a  municipality 
the  privileges  which  had  so  long  been  denied  to  its 
lumbermen  as  individuals.  Eventually  in  1875  the 
coveted  legislative  sanction  for  the  improvement 
was  secured  in  the  form  of  an  amendment  to  the  city 
charter  of  Eau  Claire.-  The  long-drawn  struggle  was, 
however,  far  from  ended.  It  was  now  merely  trans- 
ferred from  the  legislature  to  the  courts. 

While  these  picturesque  controversies  were  ab- 
sorbing the  attention  of  the  people  of  Wisconsin  other 
problems  of  far  greater  importance  received  but 
scant  consideration.  The  swift  forest  destruction 
that  accompanied  the  expansion  of  the  lumber 
industry  gave  concern  only  to  a  few  obscure  idealists.' 

1  wis.  Sen.  Jour.,  1872,  app.,  135-443. 

2  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1875,  chap.  333. 

'  In  1867  the  State  legislature,  under  the  inspiration  of  Wisconsin's 
notable  scholar.  Increase  A.  Lapham,  instituted  an  inquiry  into  the  evil 
effects  of  forest  destruction  upon  the  climate  and  stream  flow  of  the  State. 


100  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

The  enormous  waste  that  was  going  on  in  logging, 
sawing,  and  marketing  lumber  was  likewise  regarded 
as  of  little  moment.  Every  step  in  the  transformation 
of  the  pine  tree  into  the  sawed  board  was  marked 
by  improvidence.  The  log  choppers  cut  the  tree  high, 
wasting  long  stumps,  while  the  sawyers  in  dividing 
the  fallen  pine  into  logs  wasted  many  feet  of  clear 
timber  at  the  tops.  Young  growth  was  given  scant 
consideration,  while  windfalls  that  were  not  in  prime 
condition  were  left  to  rot.  It  has  been  estimated  that 
as  a  result  of  careless  logging  and  fires  not  more 
than  40  per  cent  of  the  magnificent  forest  that  once 
clothed  northern  Wisconsin  ever  reached  the  sawmill.^ 
In  the  sawmill  the  waste  continued.  Toward  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War  a  few  of  the  larger  concerns  in 
Wisconsin  attempted  to  make  some  use  of  their  waste 
products,  manufacturing  lath  and  pickets  from  slabs, 
cutting  shingles  from  culls,  and  consuming  at  least 
a  portion  of  their  sawdust  and  refuse  for  fuel.^  But 
nearly  all  merely  dumped  their  refuse  into  a  near-by 
river  or  destroyed  it  on  the  ever-blazing  slab  pile. 
Every  rise  of  the  pinery  streams  brought  down 
enormous  quantities  of  sawmill  debris,  commonly 
known  as  "flood  trash,"  while  in  many  a  prosperous 
city  of  northern  Wisconsin  it  is  today  possible  to 
point  out  business  blocks  built  upon  the  sites  of 
former  swamps  that  were  filled  with  sawmill  refuse. 

The  report  submitted  by  the  committee  of  investigation  led  to  the  passage 
of  a  law  to  encourage  tree  planting,  which  was,  however,  entirely  ineffec- 
tive. See  Report  on  the  Disastrous  Effects  of  the  Destruction  of  Forest  Trees 
in  Wisconsin  (Madison,  1867);  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1868,  chap.  102. 

1  E.  M.  Griffith,  Report  of  the  State  Forester  of  Wisconsin,  1907-8,  49. 

^  The  manufacture  of  lath  was  somewhat  unprofitable  even  in  the  larger 
sawmills,  hence  many  of  the  millmen  preferred  to  destroy  their  slabs. 


LUMBERING  101 

Fire  was  the  dread  scourge  of  the  lumber  industry. 
Sawmills  and  sawmill  towns,  flimsily  constructed  of 
inflammable  pine  and  consuming  the  airy  fuel  left 
by  their  saws,  were  periodically  swept  by  the  flames. 
It  was  a  rare  sawmill  that  was  not  burned  to  the  ground 
and  rebuilt  at  least  twice,  while  only  one  thing  was  more 
astonishing  than  the  frequency  with  which  sawmill 
towns  were  either  partially  or  wholly  destroyed,  and  this 
was  the  speed  with  which  they  rose  from  their  ashes. 

Forest  fires  were  an  appalling  source  of  loss.  As 
lumbering  operations  became  more  extensive  and 
settlements  pressed  in  close  behind  the  danger  of 
forest  conflagrations  steadily  increased.  The  careless 
logging  methods  of  the  time,  still  in  vogue  in  some 
parts  of  the  United  States,  were  an  invitation  to  the 
flames.  The  loggers  removed  only  the  choicest  pine, 
while  on  the  floor  of  the  forest  they  left  great  heaps 
of  branches  and  tops,  known  in  the  vernacular  of 
the  trade  as  "slashings."  Such  dead  material,  soon 
dry  as  tinder,  in  a  year  of  drought  needed  only  a 
spark  from  some  careless  hunter's  camp  or  farmer's 
burning  brush  pile,  or  a  chance  stroke  of  lightning, 
to  set  it  off  into  an  all-devouring  blaze.  It  was 
characteristic  of  the  attitude  of  the  period  toward 
natural  resources  that  forest  fires  were  merely  left 
to  exhaust  themselves  in  their  own  fury,  no  effort 
being  made  to  impede  or  check  the  course  of  the  flames. 

In  1863,  a  year  of  scant  rainfall,  a  disastrous  fire 
swept  over  the  forests  along  the  southwestern  shore 
of  Lake  Superior,  in  which  it  was  estimated  that 
lumber  to  the  value  of  $1,000,000  was  destroyed.^ 

1  Estimate  by  the  Clark  County  Advocate,  printed  in  Wis.  State  Jour., 
July  21,  1863.  ' 


102  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

The  smoke,  sweeping  southward  more  than  a  hundred 
miles,  was  so  thick  in  La  Crosse  that  for  several  days 
the  sun  w^as  totally  obscured,  and  the  atmosphere  was 
rendered  murky  as  far  southeast  as  Milwaukee.  "It 
must  be  a  terrible  fire,"  observed  the  Eau  Claire 
Free  Press,  "that  could  fill  the  heavens  with  smoke  at 
a  distance  of  75  to  100  miles. "^ 

The  following  year  witnessed  an  even  more  disas- 
trous conflagration.    As  a  result  of  an  unprecedented 
drought,  by  the  middle  of  May  fires  were  running 
briskly  through  the  forests  on  the  upper  Wisconsin 
and  Black  rivers.     As  the  season  advanced  and  the 
heavens  brought  no  relief  the  whole  northern  woods 
seemed  suddenly  to  burst  into  flame.    From  the  St. 
Croix,  the  Chippewa,  the  Black,  the  Wisconsin,  and 
the  Wolf  River  pineries,  and  from  Brown,  Kewaunee, 
and.  Manitow^oc   counties  came   accounts   of  raging 
seas  of  smoke  and  fire.   Scores  of  villages  and  hamlets 
were    threatened    with    destruction.     Wausau,    Two 
Rivers,  and  Neillsville  fought  off  the  engulfing  flames 
only  by  the  heroic  elforts  of  their  entire  populations. 
For   six   weeks   the   northern   pineries   were   ablaze, 
and    immense    quantities    of   valuable    timber   were 
destroyed.     It  is  significant  that  although  this  was 
one  of  the  greatest  general  conflagrations  that  the 
State  had  ever  known  it  received  scarcely  any  notice 
in  the  newspapers  of  southern  Wisconsin. 

The  same  lack  of  interest  was  again  evident  in 
1868  when  for  the  third  time  within  the  decade  forest 
fires  ran  through  the  northern  woods.  The  pineries 
on  the  Chippewa,  the  Black,  the  Wisconsin,  and  the 

1  Excerpt  from  the  Eau  Claire  Free  Press,  printed  in  Wis.  State  Jour., 
July  27,  1863. 


LUMBERING  103 

Wolf  rivers  and  the  forests  in  Kewaunee  and  Door 
counties  were  again  the  scenes  of  wide  devastation, 
while  along  the  entire  line  of  the  Chicago  &  North- 
western Railroad  from  Escanaba  to  Marquette  great 
areas  of  magnificent  forests  were  aflame. 

One  of  the  reasons  for  public  indifference  to  these 
costly  conflagrations  was  that  they  usually  involved 
little  loss  of  life.  Such,  unhappily,  was  not  the  case 
in  the  great  forest  fire  that  swept  over  northeastern 
Wisconsin  in  1871,  one  of  the  greatest  disasters  of 
its  kind  in  the  world's  history.  Following  a  three 
month's  drought,  fires  suddenly  broke  out  here  and 
there  in  all  the  counties  bordering  upon  both  shores 
of  Green  Bay.  For  three  weeks  they  burned  un- 
checked, and  the  only  notice  which  they  at  first 
received  in  the  State  press  was  an  occasional  com- 
plaint from  a  neighboring  city  that  the  atmosphere 
was  polluted  with  smoke.  By  October  4  the  con- 
flagration had  become  so  widespread  that  most  of 
the  villages  and  towns  in  a  strip  thirty  miles  wide 
and  extending  from  Appleton  to  Menominee,  Mich- 
igan, were  in  imminent  danger  of  destruction.^ 

On  the  night  of  October  8  a  hurricane  coming  up 
from  the  southwest  whipped  the  flames  furiously 
forward.  Soon  the  whole  of  northeastern  Wisconsin 
was  a  howling  tempest  of  fire.  Like  a  destroying 
demon  the  fiery  sheet  swept  northward,  leaving 
behind  a  wide  swath  of  ruined  villages,  forests,  and 
farms.  Oconto,  Marinette,  Brown,  Door,  Shawano, 
and  Kewaunee  counties,  and  parts  of  Manitowoc 
and  Outagamie  were  desolated  on  that  fateful 
autumn  night.    More  than  a  thousand  persons  were 

'  See  Green  Bay  Gazette  and  Milwaukee  Sentinel  for  the  dates  given. 


104  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

burned  to  death  in  the  holocaust,  almost  as  many 
more  were  painfully  wounded,  and  3,000  were  made 
destitute.^ 

Public  and  private  timberlands  sufTered  equally  in 
forest  conflagrations.  Public  lands,  however,  were 
exposed  to  another  danger,  the  trespassing  of  irre- 
sponsible loggers.  Timber  trespass  was  a  difficult 
problem  to  deal  with.  It  was  sometimes  impossible 
in  the  forest  to  tell  just  where  the  surveyor's  line 
between  public  and  private  lands  ran.  No  doubt 
some  trespassing  was  thus  unintentional,  but  a  far 
larger  part  was  unmistakably  willful.  Some  loggers 
did  not  even  pretend  to  cut  on  their  own  lands,  and 
they  were  encouraged  in  this  forest  free-booting  by 
dishonest  mill  owners  who  thereby  secured  cheaper 
logs.  Other  loggers  purchased  what  was  known  as  a 
"big  forty,"  fortified  by  the  possession  of  which  they 
proceeded  to  strip  half  an  adjacent  township.  The 
most  common  practice,  however,  was  to  purchase 
from  the  State  its  choice  pinelands,  paying  therefor, 
in  accordance  with  the  loose  requirements  of  the  day, 
only  a  small  installment  of  the  purchase  price;  then 
quickly  to  strip  the  lands  of  all  their  valuable  pine 
and  when  they  were  denuded  allow  them  to  revert 
to  the  State. 

In   1865  the  Wisconsin  Commissioners  of  School 

1  At  the  village  of  Peshtigo  the  fatalities  mounted  highest,  hence  the 
disaster  has  since  been  referred  to  as  the  "Peshtigo  Fire."  See  for  vivid 
descriptions,  proclamation  of  Governor  Fairchild,  Oct.  13,  1871,  printed 
in  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Oct.  14,  1871;  also  Green  Bay  Gazette  for  October, 
1871;  Wisconsin  Legislative  Manual,  1872,  470-80.  For  a  lengthier  de- 
scription by  an  eyewitness  see  pamphlet  of  Rev.  P.  Pernin,  The  Finger  of 
God  is  there!  or,  Thrilling  Episode  of  a  Strange  Event  Related  by  an  Eye- 
witness (Montreal,  1874). 


LUMBERING  105 

and  University  Lands  reported  to  Governor  Lewis 
concerning  trespassing  as  follows: 

Quietly  but  actively  trespassers  have  been  stripping  off  this  timber, 
sometimes  merely  for  their  own  use,  sometimes  making  small  sales,  and 
sometimes  carrying  on  the  shameful  business  so  extensively  as  to  cover 
the  rivers  with  stolen  logs,  and  to  grow  rich  upon  their  illgotten  plunder. 
Others,  equally  guilty,  purchase  the  stolen  property,  and  thus  support 
and  encourage  the  iniquity.  Important  corporations  and  prominent  men 
in  some  parts  of  the  State  have  been  for  years  engaged  in  the  traffic. 
Public  sentiment  thus  becomes  demoralized,  and  efforts  for  the  detection 
and  punishment  of  the  criminals  are  thwarted,  and  even  resented  as  un- 
warrantable interference  with  private  rights.  To  a  considerable  class,  in- 
cluding many  besides  those  actually  interested,  this  robbery  of  the  children's 
inheritance  has  come  by  long  use  to  seem  excusable  and  even  right.  '■ 

For  many  years  the  State  made  little  effort  to 
discourage  such  dishonesty.  Private  landholders 
employed  experienced  woodsmen  to  protect  their 
timber,  but  as  late  as  1860  the  State  left  the  difhcult 
task  of  guarding  its  remote  and  interminable  forests 
to  county  sheriffs,  constables,  and  justices  of  the 
peace.  In  1860  an  improvement  was  secured  w^hen 
the  Commissioners  of  School  and  University  Lands 
were  authorized  to  maintain  four  forest  rangers  in 
the  northern  pineries  during  the  logging  season. ^ 
At  the  same  time,  however,  the  penalty  for  trespass- 
ing was  greatly  reduced.  Trespassers  detected  in 
their  work  were  given  an  opportunity  to  escape 
prosecution  entirely  if  they  agreed  to  purchase  the 
land  from  which  they  had  illicitly  cut  timber,  the 
only  penalty  inflicted  being  to  add  to  the  purchase 
price  of  the  land  an  additional  25  per  cent. 

1  Commissioners  of  School  and  University  Lands  of  Wisconsin,  Report, 
1865,  9,  bound  with  Wis.  Mess,  and  Docs.,  1865.  The  State  lands  were 
chiefly  held  for  educational  purposes,  hence  the  reference  to  children's 
inheritance. 

2  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1860,  chap.  277. 


106  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

This  change,  inadequate  though  it  was,  and  often 
defeated  in  its  purpose  by  the  dishonesty  or  incapac- 
ity of  the  rangers,  was  a  distinct  improvement.    In 

1864  the  law  was  strengthened  by  raising  the  number 
of  foresters  to  eight  and  increasing  the  penalty  in  the 
more  flagrant  cases  of  trespassing  to  50  per  cent.    In 

1865  other  improvements  were  made,  but  in  1871  the 
number  of  rangers  was  again  reduced  to  four,  a 
misfortune  that  was  only  partially  offset  by  doubling 
the  penalty  against  offenders.^  Trespassing  upon 
State  lands  remained  during  all  the  rest  of  the  century 
a  vexatious  problem,  while  the  punishment  meted 
out  to  the  timber  thieves  continued  until  recent 
years  to  be  merely  the  requirement  upon  detection 
of  purchasing  the  stolen  lumber  at  an  enhanced 
price. 

The  leniency  to  timber  thieves  displayed  by  the 
State  and  Federal  governments  was  largely  a  matter 
of  necessity.  Public  sentiment  in  the  affected  dis- 
tricts was  unsympathetic  toward  a  rigid  enforce- 
ment of  the  land  laws,  a  characteristic  frontier 
attitude,  and  the  only  hope  of  arriving  at  any  kind 
of  settlement  was  by  compromise.  "Experience  has 
taught  us,"  declared  the  United  States  Land  Com- 
missioner in  1865,  "that  when  community  interests 
conflict  with  law  and  public  opinion  is  in  conflict 
with  its  enforcement,  it  becomes  virtually  inopera- 
tive."2 

The  loss  suffered  by  the  State  through  the  opera- 
tions of  timber  thieves  was  very  large.    In  1860  the 

^  Id.,  1871,  chap.  21. 

2  U.  S.  Land  Office,  Report,  1865,  26.  See  also  Cyrus  W^oodman  to 
James  Hinman,  April  5,  1861,  in  Cyrus  Woodman  Manuscripts  in  Wis- 
consin Historical  Library. 


LUMBERING  107 

Commissioners    of     School    and    University     Lands 
declared:  "Of  all  the  causes  which  have  operated  to 
the  depletion  of  the  trust  funds  of  the  State,  it  is 
believed  none  has  worked  greater  loss  than  'skinning' 
the  pine  and  other  timbered  lands  of  the  northern 
portion  of  the  State."^    The  lands  held  by  the  State 
in  trust  for  the  St.  Croix  &  Lake  Superior  Railroad 
and   for   the   Sturgeon   Bay   Ship    Canal   Company, 
which  for  some  years  received  even  less  protection 
than  the  school  and  university  lands,  were  in  pro- 
portion  more  extensively  plundered.      In   1864  the 
State  forest  rangers  found  that  nearly  12,000  acres 
of  the  pinelands  of  the  State  had  been  trespassed 
upon,  and  in  the  following  year  nearly  19,000  acres. ^ 
In  1864,  inadequate  as  their  force  was,  they  seized 
19,717,200  feet  of  pine,  2,861    cords   of   wood,  and 
40,000  cedar  posts,  besides  considerable  other  miscel- 
laneous timber,  that  had  been  unlawfully  cut  from 
State  lands. 3    In  1873  a  single  forester  employed  to 
protect  the  St.  Croix  &  Lake  Superior  Railroad  land 
grant  discovered  and  seized  in  one  season  upon  this 
grant  11,000,000  feet  of  stolen  logs.^ 

It  was  observed  by  the  Commissioners  of  School 
and  University  Lands  that  as  soon  as  an  active 
policy  of  repression  against  trespassers  was  in- 
augurated the  number  of  acres  of  pinelands  sold  by 
the  State  suddenly  jumped  upward.  More  particu- 
larly was  it  noticed  that  purchasers  were  wilUng 
to  pay  for  lands  in  full  instead  of  by  installments  as 

1  Comrs.  of  School  &  Univ.  Lands,  Report,  1860,  61. 

2  7rf.,  1864,  8,  26;  jrf.,  1865,  10. 

3  Id.,  1864,  8,  26. 

*  Madison  Democrat,  Sept.  29,  1874.  See  also  Wis.  Lumberman,  Octo- 
ber, 1874,  140-41. 


108  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

before.  In  1864,  when  the  number  of  forest  rangers 
was  increased  from  four  to  eight,  the  sales  of  State 
lands  increased  one-third,  and  the  lands  fully  paid  for 
increased  from  76,365  acres  to  103,238  acres.  "We 
know,"  declared  the  Commissioners,  "that  a  substan- 
tial portion  of  this  increase  is  owing  to  the  watch- 
fulness exercised  over  the  public  lands,  and  the  en- 
hanced risk  of  trespassing  on  them."  "Purchasing," 
they  significantly  remark,  "is  more  in  fashion  than 
in  earlier  times. "^ 

The  lumber  industry  in  Wisconsin  was  seriously 
embarrassed  by  scarcity  of  labor  during  the  last  two 
years  of  the  Civil  War.  The  remoteness  of  the  lumber 
camps  from  settlements,  the  rough  and  temporary 
nature  of  the  work,  and  the  unsatisfactory  terms  of 
employment  were  sufficient  even  in  normal  times  to 
render  the  labor  problem  in  the  pineries  a  trouble- 
some one.  The  Wolf  River  and  Green  Bay  pineries, 
being  nearer  to  large  centers  of  population,  experi- 
enced less  difficulty  in  securing  labor  than  did  the 
pineries  in  northwestern  Wisconsin.  Their  advantage 
was  reflected  in  the  lower  wages  that  they  were 
accustomed  to  pay. 

In  both  sections,  however,  there  was  an  unusual 
scarcity  of  labor  during  the  last  two  years  of  the  war 
and  the  years  immediately  following  its  close.  Wages 
as  a  result  rose  to  unprecedented  heights.  It  was 
customary  in  1860  and  1861  to  pay  workers  in  lumber 
camps  from  $12  to  $25  per  month  and  board,  varying 
with  different  pineries  and  with  the  skill  of  individual 
workmen. 2    In  1864,  according  to  newspaper  reports, 

'  Comrs.  of  School  &  Univ.  Lands,  Report,  1864,  8. 
2  Wis.  Lumberman,  December,   1873,   163;   Moses  M.   Strong  Manu- 
scripts, 1859,  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Library. 


LUMBERING  109 

the  wages  of  loggers  in  the  northwestern  pineries  of 
Wisconsin  ranged  from  $3  to  $4  per  day  including 
board,  while  those  of  the  rivermen  were  even  higher. 
In  the  La  Crosse  Democrat  of  May  29,  1865  a  corre- 
spondent asserted  that  raft  pilots  were  receiving  in 
several  instances  as  high  as  $3,000  per  year,  while 
ordinary  hands  were  paid  $3  a  day,  with  board  for 
the  time  consumed  in  going  to  market  by  raft  and 
returning  by  steamer.^ 

Labor  conditions  in  the  lumber  camps  continued 
throughout  our  period  to  be  most  unsatisfactory. 
The  food  of  the  laborers  was  coarse  and  without 
variety,  the  lodgings  were  unsanitary,  and  drunken- 
ness was  universal.  Many  logging  contractors,  more- 
over, were  financially  irresponsible,  and  the  lumber- 
jacks were  often  defrauded  by  them  of  the  wages  of 
an  entire  season.  Among  the  responsible  companies 
and  particularly  among  the  large  sawmill  corporations 
"company  stores"  were  the  source  of  much  dissatis- 
faction. The  employees,  who  were  compelled  to 
trade  at  such  stores,  frequently  found  when  accounts 
were  balanced  at  the  end  of  the  season  that  they 
not  only  had  no  wages  due  them,  but  were  actually 
in  debt  to  the  company  for  supplies,  tobacco,  and 
whisky. 

The  depression  which  settled  upon  the  Wisconsin 
lumber  industry  from  1868  to  1870  led  to  severe  cuts 
in  wages  and  to  a  number  of  labor  disputes,  notably 
at  Oshkosh,  Black  River  Falls,  and  Eau  Claire.  At 
Black  River  Falls  an  association  of  river  drivers 
appears  to  have  been  organized  in  1869,  which  pur- 

^  See  also  excerpts  from  pinery  newspapers  in  Wisconsin  Weekly  State 
Journal,  Mar.  28  and  April  4,  1865;   Milwaukee  Sentinel,  April  10,  1865. 


110  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

ported  to  include  rivermen  in  all  the  pineries  of  the 
State,  though  it  never  extended  its  influence  beyond 
the  Black  River.  At  Green  Bay  and  Black  River 
Falls  the  sawmill  owners  entered  into  agreements  to 
secure  united  action  in  their  relations  with  employees, 
an  unusual  procedure  at  this  early  day  in  Wisconsin 
lumbering.  The  nature  of  the  industry,  however, 
precluded  any  effective  organization  either  of  em- 
ployers or  employees,  and  those  associations  which 
were  formed  were  uncertain  and  unstable  in  char- 
acter.^ 

In  every  new  country  the  natural  resources  closest 
at  hand  are  the  first  to  be  exploited.  Particularly  is 
this  true  if  only  a  small  outlay  of  money  is  required 
in  the  process.  The  gifts  of  nature  are  transformed 
into  capital  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  the  means  thus 
accumulated  form  the  basis  for  the  development  of 
other  fields  of  industry.  In  Wisconsin  lumber  was 
one  of  the  easiest,  and  therefore  one  of  the  first, 
of  the  great  natural  resources  to  be  thus  utilized. 
To  the  fortunes  realized  in  the  hewing  and  sawing 
of  pine  nearly  every  other  industry  in  the  State  in 
part  at  least  owes  its  present  advancement.  Un- 
happily, the  lumbermen  of  Wisconsin  in  their  eager- 
ness to  transmute  the  great  northern  forests  into  gold 
followed  in  the  footsteps  of  other  pioneer  exploiters. 
With  reckless  disregard  for  the  future  they  wasted 
the  gift  of  the  ages.  Today  when  northern  Wis- 
consin is  stripped  of  its  priceless  heritage  of  forests 
the  State  repents  its  youthful  folly. 

^  By  the  winter  of  1873  wages  in  the  pineries  had  fallen  to  the  level  of 
1861. 


CHAPTER  IV 
MINING,  1860-70 

In  nothing  did  Wisconsin  give  more  convincing 
proof  of  her  prosperity  during  the  closing  years  of 
the  Civil  War  than  in  the  mining  boom  which  at  that 
time  marked  her  industrial  life.  Enterprises  that 
had  been  abandoned  in  despair  after  the  panic  of 
1857  secured  a  new  lease  on  life  between  1864  and 
1867.  Fresh  undertakings,  both  legitimate  and 
spurious,  attracted  speculators  and  investors.  The 
large  number  of  mining  and  smelting  companies 
besieging  the  State  legislature  for  charters  in  1864 
obliged  that  body  to  enact  a  general  law  for  incor- 
porating such  organizations.^  In  the  following  session 
applications  for  special  charters  still  appeared  to 
the  number  of  forty-two.  In  1866,  when  the  mining 
boom  had  reached  its  height,  nearly  double  that 
number  were  under  consideration.- 

The  most  substantial  of  these  mining  operations 
centered  about  the  old  lead  districts  of  southwestern 
Wisconsin,  comprising  roughly  the  three  counties  of 
Grant,  Iowa,  and  Lafayette.  Here  since  the  first 
days   of   French   occupation   the   heavy   deposits   of 

1  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1864,  chap.  166.  The  hopeful  optimism  of  the  period 
fmds  expression  in  the  taxing  provisions  of  this  law.  Although  qualified 
geologists  pointed  out  the  extreme  improbability  of  coal  ever  being  found 
within  the  limits  of  the  State,  due  to  the  completion  of  its  geologic  strata 
before  the  carboniferous  age,  this  law  imposed  a  tax  of  }4  cent  per  ton  upon 
all  coal  which  should  in  the  future  be  mined  in  Wisconsin. 

nVis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1865;  id.,  1866;  W^is.  Sen.  Jour.,  1865;  id.,  1866. 

[Ill] 


112  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

galena  had  been  a  fruitful  source  of  exploitation. 
Lying  entirely  in  the  "driftless  area,"  with  the  min- 
eral-bearing rock  exposed  to  easy  operation  by  the  in- 
dividual miner,  this  region  had  become  one  of  the 
first  centers  of  industry  and  influence  in  the  State. 
A  fortunate  accident  of  geology  determined  that 
the  organization  of  our  State  government,  the  agita- 
tion for  State  canals,  and  the  building  of  the  first  east 
and  west  railroads  should  all  find  here  their  initial 
impulse.^ 

By  1847  the  region  had  reached  the  height  of  its 
development;  thereafter  it  rapidly  declined.  The 
most  productive  shafts  had  been  worked  down  to 
the  water  level,  the  superior  attractiveness  of  the 
gold  mines  of  California  and  the  copper  mines  of 
Lake  Superior  were  depleting  its  labor  supply,  and 
the  more  stable  returns  of  a  fertile  soil  were  transform- 
ing the  remaining  miners  into  farmers.  From  1850 
until  comparatively  recent  times  lead  mining  in  the 
district  was  for  the  most  part  carried  on  as  a  winter 
occupation  of  the  farmers. 

The  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  witnessed  a  marked 
change  in  the  older  methods  of  conducting  mining 
operations.  In  the  former  period  many  of  the  richest 
shafts  had  been  abandoned  at  the  water  level  be- 
cause of  the  difficulty  and  expense  of  draining.  In 
the  early  sixties,  however,  eastern  capital  was  in- 
troduced to  accomplish  what  had  been  impossible 
for  individual  enterprise.  Large  corporations  bought 
up  all  of  the  promising  diggings  in  abandoned  dis- 
tricts,  sank  level   adits  or  drains  to  unwater  their 

»0.  G.  Libby,  "Significance  of  the  Lead  and  Shot  Trade,"  in  Wis. 
Hist.  Colls.,  XIII,  293. 


MINING  113 

consolidated  holdings,  and  either  operated  the  dig- 
gings themselves  or  leased  them  to  individual  miners 
on  tribute.^  An  example  of  the  successful  application 
of  capital  and  modern  mining  methods  to  abandoned 
mines,  which  received  wide  notice  in  the  press  of 
southern  Wisconsin  during  the  war,  was  the  Cham- 
pion lode  in  the  New  Diggings  district.  Here  in 
1862  the  running  of  a  level  adit  half  a  mile  in  length 
was  commenced,  which,  after  an  expenditure  of 
$70,000  and  about  three  years  of  labor,  drained 
ground  from  which  during  the  next  four  years  5,000,- 
000  pounds  of  ore  were  secured. 

Not  even  the  introduction  of  capital,  however, 
nor  the  unusual  prices  paid  for  lead  during  the  years 
of  the  w^ar  could  permanently  check  the  decline  of 
the  industry.  The  diggings  were  after  all  consider- 
ably worked  out,  and  the  favorable  market  condi- 
tions created  by  the  war  merely  operated  to  lessen 
the  rate  of  decline.  While  the  price  of  pig  lead  rose 
from  $4.90  per  100  pounds  in  July,  1861  to  $15  in 
January,  1865,  the  production  of  ore  in  the  Wisconsin 
lead  region  fell  from  17,037,912  pounds  in  1862  to 
14,337,895  pounds  in  1865  and  13,754,159  pounds  by 
the  end  of  the  decade. ^ 

A  new  product  of  the  lead  mines  during  the  war, 

^  The  tribute  varied  from  one-fourth  to  one-tenth  of  all  the  ore  raised, 
depending  upon  the  richness  of  the  vein,  the  ease  of  operation,  and  the 
market  price  of  the  mineral.  See  the  Moses  M.  Strong  Manuscripts  and 
Cyrus  Woodman  Manuscripts  for  this  period  in  the  Wisconsin  Historical 
Library. 

2  The  statistics  of  prices  are  from  the  report  of  the  Aldrich  Committee, 
52  Cong.,  2  sess.,  Senate  Reports,  III,  pt.  2,  192.  The  price  quoted  for 
1865  is  in  greenbacks.  The  statistics  of  production  are  from  Moses 
Strong,  "Geology  and  Topography  of  the  Lead  Region,"  in  Chamberlin, 
Geology  of  Wisconsin,  1873-79,  II,  742. 


114  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

however,  more  than  compensated  for  this  decrease 
in  the  output  of  lead.  Prior  to  1860  the  zinc  ores 
occurring  associated  with  galena  had  been  regarded 
by  the  miners  as  a  nuisance,  and  such  as  had  to  be 
raised  had  either  been  throw^n  away  or  utilized  for 
making  roads.  About  1860  smithsonite,  one  of  these 
ores,  popularly  known  among  the  miners  as  "dry- 
bone"  because  of  its  resemblance  to  partly  decayed 
bone,  began  to  be  smelted  with  success,  and  there- 
after its  production  rose  by  leaps  and  bounds.  In 
1860,  320,000  pounds  were  mined;  in  1865  this  amount 
had  risen  to  4,198,200  pounds  and  in  1872  to 
27,021,388  pounds.  Shortly  after  the  close  of  the 
war,  deeper-lying  zinc  ore  known  as  blende  or  black- 
jack, began  to  be  mined  successfully  and  before 
many  years  was  being  raised  even  more  extensively 
than  "drybone."  In  1867,  841,310  pounds  were 
mined;  a  year  later  this  amount  had  jumped  to 
3,078,435  pounds  and  by  1872  to  16,256,970  pounds. 
Blende  proved  to  be  the  most  abundant  mineral  in 
the  lead  region,  and  to  the  present  day  it  is  extensively 
mined. ^ 

This  rapid  development  of  the  zinc  industry  in 
southwestern  Wisconsin  must  be  attributed  in  part 
to  the  economies  of  large-scale  lead  mining,  which 
made  possible  the  raising  of  hitherto  inaccessible 
ores.  Equally  important,  however,  was  the  intro- 
duction of  necessary  capital  for  the  establishment 
of  zinc  smelteries  and  the  appUcation  of  metallurgical 
skill  to  the  reduction  of  the  ores.  In  1859  the  first 
attempt  in  the  State  at  manufacturing  zinc  from 
"drybone"  was  made  at  Mineral  Point.  The  experi- 
'  Ibid. 


MINING  115 

ment  proved  successful  in  a  small  way,  and  in  1863 
or  1864  a  firm  of  eastern  capitalists  was  induced  to 
expend  approximately  $100,000  in  erecting  zinc 
works  there  on  a  more  extensive  scale.  The  expense 
of  transporting  coal  from  Illinois  to  Mineral  Point 
eventually  proved  prohibitive,  however,  and  the 
undertaking  had  to  be  abandoned. 

In  the  meantime  two  German  graduates  of  the 
mining  academy  of  Freiburg,  E.  C.  Hegeler  and  F. 
W.  Matthiessen,  who  had  visited  Mineral  Point  in 
1858  in  order  to  satisfy  themselves  of  the  feasibility 
of  profitably  smelting  its  zinc  ores,  had  been  favor- 
ably impressed  and  had  established  a  modest  smelt- 
ery at  La  Salle,  Illinois,  where  coal  was  abundant 
and  fire  clay  near  at  hand.  A  number  of  years  were 
spent  in  adapting  European  methods  to  new  materials 
and  new  conditions.  This  was  interrupted  temporarily 
in  1861  by  the  depression  which  followed  the  outbreak 
of  the  war.  The  increased  demand  during  the  war  for 
zinc  to  be  used  in  the  manufacture  of  arms  and  cart- 
ridges presented  the  enterprising  firm  its  opportunity, 
and  by  the  close  of  the  war  it  had  built  up  one  of  the 
largest  zinc  manufacturing  establishments  in  the  world. 

While  the  smelting  of  zinc  was  in  an  experimental 
stage  the  raw  ore  could  be  secured  for  the  cost  of 
hauling  from  the  refuse  heaps  of  the  mines  and  the 
furnaces.  Due  to  the  success  of  the  La  Salle  works, 
however,  its  value  rose  by  the  end  of  the  war  to 
$10  or  $15  a  ton,  and  by  the  end  of  the  decade,  it 
was  one  of  the  most  important  mineral  products  of 
the  lead  region. 

Iron  mining  during  the  war  was  in  its  infancy.  The 
great  mines  of  the  Lake  Superior  region  completely 


116  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

overshadowed  those  in  Wisconsin,  attracting  thither 
whatever  capital  was  available  for  such  investment. 
The  Iron  Ridge  in  Dodge  County  and  Ironton  in 
Sauk  County  were  the  only  localities  in  the  State  in 
which  any  iron  ore  was  mined.  The  annual  output  of 
the  two  districts  during  the  early  sixties  probably 
never  exceeded  7,500  tons. 

Beginning  with  1870,  however,  as  the  result  of  the 
erection  of  a  great  rolling  mill  in  Milwaukee,  the 
industry  assumed  new  importance.  In  that  year  the 
product  of  the  Wisconsin  mines  suddenly  jumped 
to  100,000  tons.^  The  Iron  Ridge  in  particular  made 
rapid  progress.  Its  ores,  being  hard,  were  deemed 
desirable  for  mixing  with  the  softer  mineral  of  the 
Lake  Superior  region,  and  thus  they  found  a  ready 
market  not  only  in  Milwaukee  but  in  Cleveland, 
Chicago,  St.  Louis,  and  Wyandotte.  In  1870  prac- 
tically the  entire  Wisconsin  output  originated  in 
the  Dodge  County  mines. ^  In  1872  the  rich  deposits 
of  the  Gogebic  Range  in  northeastern  Wisconsin  were 
discovered,  but  it  was  not  until  a  later  period  that 
there  developed  in  this  region  the  great  iron  interests 
for  which  it  has  since  become  famous. 

A  highly  speculative  mining  interest  which  created 
excitement  in  Wisconsin  for  several  years  was  pe- 
troleum. Previous  to  1864  this  oil  had  been  adver- 
tised in  newspapers  and  sold  in  drug  stores  chiefly 
as  a  medicine.  In  the  frontier  region  west  of  Lake 
Michigan    illumination    was   still   limited   chiefly   to 

1  The  Iron  Ridge  produced  more  than  90,000  tons  of  this  amount.  It 
sent  to  Milwaukee  for  manufacture  and  export  78,587  tons  of  ore  and  some 
6,500  tons  of  pig  iron.  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1871, 
78:  pod,  chap.  v. 

2  Ibid. 


MINING  117 

the  tallow  candle  and  the  lard-oil  cup.  A  few  of  the 
more  enterprising  settlers  used  the  serviceable  volatile 
fluids,  which  were,  however,  not  only  expensive  but 
dangerous.  During  the  height  of  the  Civil  War  im- 
proved methods  for  refining  crude  petroleum  were 
discovered,  which  made  possible  the  use  of  the  oil 
for  illuminating  purposes.  There  followed  in  1864  a 
tremendous  boom  in  the  oil  fields  of  Pennsylvania, 
West  Virginia,  and  Ohio.  The  entire  North  turned 
its  eyes  to  the  region  of  the  "gushers."  The  popular 
imagination  was  fired  w^th  accounts  of  fortunes  made 
in  a  day,  and  tales  of  the  wealth  and  extravagance 
of  the  "petroleum  aristocracy"  were  upon  every 
tongue. 

In  1865  the  petroleum  fever  reached  Wisconsin. 
Early  in  that  year  alleged  indications  of  oil  were 
reported  from  various  parts  of  the  State  and  the 
reports  were  readily  credited.  Feverish  excitement  in 
the  fortunate  districts  followed  each  discovery.  Stock 
companies  were  organized,  derricks  and  boring  ap- 
paratus were  imported  from  the  East,  and  operations 
were  commenced  in  approved  eastern  fashion.  The 
reputable  geologists  in  the  State  were  unanimous  in 
protesting  their  unbelief;  they  explained  that  the 
oily  blue  scum  on  the  surface  of  the  marsh  waters, 
which  usually  created  the  excitement,  was  but  the 
result  of  decay  of  organic  substances,  but  speculators 
refused  to  be  discouraged.  In  1865  twenty-four 
petroleum  mining  companies  were  before  the  legis- 
lature seeking  special  charters,  all  of  which  were 
granted;  in  1866  the  number  had  risen  to  forty-two.^ 

1  See  R.  D.  Irving,  "Mineral  Resources,"  in  History  of  Dodge  County, 
162-72;  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1865;  id.,  1866;  Wis.  Sen.  Jour.,  1865;  id.,  1866. 


118  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Probably  as  many  more  not  substantial  enough  to 
secure  special  incorporation  were  operating  under 
the  general  laws.  Appleton  with  a  population  of 
2,700  was  supporting  in  May,  1865  seven  petroleum 
companies  in  various  stages  of  organization;  the 
village  of  Sparta  with  a  population  of  about  1,300 
early  in  1866  was  supporting  ten  or  twelve,  all  oper- 
ating in  the  Kickapoo  Valley  of  Crawford  County. 
In  the  southern  part  of  Monroe  County  a  community 
which  still  bears  the  name  of  Oil  City  suddenly  grew 
up  about  an  oil  discovery.  In  Crawford  County 
another  community,  consisting  of  a  hastily  con- 
structed hotel  and  a  barn,  adopted  the  same  ambi- 
tious appellation.  At  Appleton,  where  the  excitement 
centered  about  an  old  well  from  which  it  was  claimed 
gas  intermittently  discharged,  a  miniature  mining 
rush  took  place.  On  April  5,  1865  the  editor  of  the 
Appleton  Crescent  wrote:  "Strangers  keep  flocking 
to  town.  There  is  a  constant  stream  of  visitors  to 
the  Northwestern  Company's  well.  House  room  is 
becoming  so  scarce  that  the  newcomers  will  soon  be 
obliged  to  bring  their  tents  with  them,  or  'sleep 
standing.'"  On  Feb.  16,  1865  Col.  Charles  S.  Robin- 
son, the  intelligent  and  conservative  editor  of  the 
Green  Bay  Advocate,  who  was  interested  in  one  of  the 
Appleton  petroleum  companies  wrote:  "Who  knows 
but  Northern  Wisconsin  may  yet  become  a  place 
of  as  much  wealth  and  the  scene  of  as  much  excite- 
ment as  the  oil  regions  of  Pennsylvania  now  are." 

Coupled  with  easy  optimism  in  stimulating  and 
maintaining  the  petroleum  fever  was  the  usual 
admixture  of  fraud.  When  expensive  boring  oper- 
ations continued  month  after  month  without  produc- 


MINING  119 

ing  the  promised   gushers  and  investors  began  to  be 
discouraged,    it    frequently    occurred    that    limited 
quantities  of  crude  oil  would  be  struck  opportunely 
of  a  quality   "equal  if  not  superior  to  that  of  the 
Pennsylvania  region."    A  common  device  for  stirring 
up  interest  was  the  importation  of  strangers  posing 
as  geological  experts  to  examine  promising  prospects. 
Of   course   their   reports   were  invariably   favorable. 
In   the   Prairie   du   Chien    Courier    of  July   7,    1865 
occurs  a  characteristic  report  by  Prof.  L.  H.  Gano 
of  Chicago  upon  the  lands  of  the  Wisconsin  Copper 
Creek  Petroleum  and  Mining  Company.    Beginning 
with  an  elaborate  discussion  of  the  geologic  structure 
of   the    region,    bristling   with    technical    terms   but 
peculiarly  devoid  of  meaning,  the  author  concludes: 
"I  shall  feel  safe  in  saying  the  surface  indications 
and    natural   developments   of   these   lands   are   un- 
surpassed by  any  oil  region  in  the  United  States,  and 
I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  I  sincerely  believe 
that  proper  developments  here  will  be  rewarded  by 
flowing    wells,    yielding    in    quantity    equal    to    any 
heretofore    developed    elsewhere,     the    geographical 
formation    taken    in    connection    with    the    natural 
developments  warrant  this  conclusion."     An  exami- 
nation of  the  Chicago  directory  for  1865  discloses  the 
learned  Prof.  L.  H.  Gano  as  plain  Louis  H.  Gano, 
speculative   broker  in   one   of   the   cheaper   Chicago 
business  districts. 

The  extent  to  which  Wisconsin  citizens  invested 
in  oil  speculation  at  this  time  can  only  be  approxi- 
mated. The  opportunities  offered  were  certainly 
abundant,  both  in  home  and  in  foreign  ventures. 
Stock  was  thrown  upon  the  market  in  the  smallest 


120  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

possible  denominations  in  order  that  persons  of 
limited  means  might  not  be  excluded  from  the 
opportunity  of  winning  fortunes.  Shares  were  sold 
for  as  low  as  $5,  often  at  a  discount  of  50  per  cent. 
On  Aug.  20,  1865,  when  the  petroleum  craze  had  not 
yet  run  its  course  in  the  State,  the  Wisconsin  Daily 
Capital  estimated  that  the  people  of  Madison  alone 
had  invested  over  $200,000  in  oil  wells.^  The  Bothwell 
News  Letter  of  Canada  West  in  the  spring  of  1866 
reported:  "Ten  oil  companies  with  an  average  cash 
capital  of  twenty  thousand  dollars  each,  have  been 
organized  in  the  city  of  Fond  du  Lac,  nine  of  which 
are  operating  here  at  Bothwell,  and  one  in  Kentucky. 
The  amount  of  money  invested  here,  by  Fond  du  Lac 
men  alone,  including  individual  investments,  cannot 
fall  far  short  of  $300,000.  Pretty  heavy  that  for  a  city 
of  twelve  thousand  inhabitants. "^  Citizens  of  Mil- 
waukee sank  §400,000  in  such  speculations,  according 
to  an  estimate  of  0.  H.  Waldo,  a  prominent  Mil- 
waukee business  man.  "It  took  only  a  few  hours," 
he  declared,  "to  raise  $100,000  to  sink  in  oil,  and  the 
experiment  was  repeated  three  or  four  times. "^ 
These  estimates  were  no  doubt  somewhat  exag- 
gerated, yet  they  serve  as  an  indication  of  the  extent 
to  which  the  prosperous  citizens  of  the  State  were 
investing  in  home  and  foreign  petroleum  enterprises 
during  the  boom  years  of  1865  and  1866. 

These   years   saw   also    a   revival   of   attempts   at 
copper  mining,  the  lead  region,  Douglas  County,  and 

^The  population  of  the  city  of  Madison  at  this  time  was  6,648. 

2  Reprinted  in  Fond  du  Lac  Reporter,  Mar.  24,  1866. 

'Address  before  the  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  in  Milwaukee 
Sentinel,  May  29,  1869.  See  also  Oshkosh  Northwestern,  Mar.  29,  1866, 
for  an  estimate  of  the  oil  investments  of  Fond  du  Lac  business  men. 


MINING  121 

the  lower  Fox  Valley  being  the  centers  of  interest. 
The  meager  copper  deposits  of  the  lead  region  near 
Mineral  Point,  which  in  the  early  forties  had  pro- 
duced about  a  million  and  a  half  pounds  of  ore, 
induced  some  futile  efforts  in  1860  and  several 
equally  fruitless  attempts  in  the  years  from  1863 
to  1866.  In  Douglas  County  three  organized  efforts 
at  copper  mining  were  made:  one  at  the  so-called 
Fond  du  Lac  mine,  in  which,  in  1863,  a  company 
of  prominent  Milwaukee  business  men  sank  about 
$14,000;  another  at  the  Copper  Creek  mine,  an 
abandoned  prospect  of  the  old  American  Fur  Com- 
pany, upon  which  in  1864  and  1865,  $30,000  was 
expended;  and  a  third  similarly  futile  effort  in  1865 
on  the  Upper  Falls  of  Black  River.  In  the  north- 
eastern portion  of  the  State,  particularly  in  the  lower 
Fox  River  Valley,  the  finding  of  fragments  of  native 
copper,  carried  down  by  the  glaciers  from  the  copper- 
bearing  rocks  of  the  Lake  Superior  region,  periodical- 
ly stirred  up  excited  interest  in  copper  mining  and 
led  the  Appleton  Crescent  on  Feb.  18,  1865  to  assert 
confidently  that  "a  large  portion  of  our  country  is 
underlaid  with  a  rich  copper  bed  almost,  if  not  quite 
equal  to  the  Lake  Superior  region." 

Peat,  a  product  of  hundreds  of  Wisconsin  marshes, 
attracted  new  interest.  In  these  deposits,  it  was 
boldly  asserted,  the  State  possessed  a  boundless 
source  of  future  fuel  supply.  During  the  years 
1866  and  1867  eighteen  peat-cutting  and  manufactur- 
ing companies  came  before  the  legislature  for  in- 
corporation, their  titles  indicating  that  they  intended 
to  operate  chiefly  in  the  southern  portion  of  the  State. 
The   beds,    owned   by    Col.    William   B.    Slaughter, 


122  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

about  seven  miles  west  of  Madison,  which,  according 
to  the  Wisconsin  State  Journal,  contained  upward  of 
300,000  solid  cords  of  peat,^  were  the  subject  of  much 
discussion  and  confident  hope  in  the  surrounding 
region.  The  cost  of  cutting  and  manufacturing, 
however,  was  prohibitive.  Most  of  the  deposits  were 
of  inferior  quality,  and  wood  was  comparatively 
cheap  and  pleasanter  to  handle.  With  the  passing 
of  the  boom  years  the  subject  was  quietly  dropped. 

At  Milwaukee  and  a  number  of  other  points  along 
the  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  the  stratified  beds  of 
clay  deposited  by  the  lake  at  a  time  when  it  extended 
far  beyond  its  present  limits  furnished  material  for 
an  excellent  cream-colored  brick  which  became  widely 
known  throughout  the  country  as  "Milwaukee 
Brick."  At  the  chief  point  of  manufacture  in  the 
metropolis  of  the  State  from  20,000,000  to  25,000,000 
were  annually  produced  during  the  period  of  the  war, 
the  use  of  which  at  home  and  abroad  gave  to  Mil- 
waukee its  title,  "The  Cream  City." 

The  mining  boom  that  swept  over  Wisconsin  from 
1864  to  1867  is  interesting  chiefly  as  a  chapter  of 
beginnings,  though  significant  also  as  an  indication 
of  the  prosperity  which  the  State  was  enjoying. 
While  the  East  was  suffering  a  temporary  depression 
from  the  end  of  the  war  to  1867,  due  to  the  return  of 
the  soldiers  from  the  front  and  the  sudden  contraction 
in  the  value  of  greenbacks,  the  agricultural  West  was 
experiencing  little,  if  any,  check,  and  the  farmers  of 
Wisconsin  possessed  an  abundance  of  money  for 
investment  in  mining  sp  culations. 

'  Wis.  Stale  Jour.,  Mar.  18,  1865. 


CHAPTER  V 
MANUFACTURING 

Wisconsin  as  a  State  was  well  adapted  to  manu- 
facturing. She  possessed  natural  endowments  both 
numerous  and  in  fortunate  combination.  Raw 
materials  she  had  in  profusion.  Her  soil  gave  her 
wheat  for  milling,  hogs  and  cattle  for  packing,  and 
hides  for  leather.  Her  forests  offered  her  lumber, 
both  hard  and  soft,  to  be  fashioned  into  furniture, 
woodenware,  and  ships.  Her  mines  yielded  iron  for 
machinery,  implements,  and  rails.  Her  clay  pro- 
duced excellent  brick.  Her  numerous  streams  af- 
forded abundant  power  for  the  wheels  of  factories 
and  mills.  She  had  no  coal,  but  her  railroads  brought 
her  cheaply  the  carbon  product  of  lUinois,  and  her 
lake  vessels  freely  eked  out  the  profits  of  grain  carry- 
ing by  transporting  at  little  cost  return  cargoes  of  the 
bituminous  output  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio.  Finally, 
her  magnificent  system  of  inland  waterways  and  her 
developing  railroads  afforded  her  manufacturers  wide 
and  convenient  avenues  to  the  markets  of  the  world. 

To  a  limited  extent  at  the  beginning  of  the  Civil 
War  Wisconsin  had  availed  herself  of  these  oppor- 
tunities. Her  lumbering  and  milling  industries  were 
developing;  those  of  tanning,  brewing,  and  brick- 
making  were  under  way.  However,  all  were  still  in 
their  infancy.  Wisconsin  was  too  young  a  community 
to  have  built  up  any  extensive  manufacturing  inter- 
ests.   Of  the  elements  necessary  to  success  on  a  large 

f  123  1 


124  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

scale  she  lacked  two.  She  had  neither  large  centers  of 
population  nor  surplus  capital.  Her  greatest  city 
contained  less  than  50,000  inhabitants;  she  had 
besides  this  no  town  more  imposing  in  population 
than  7,500.  As  for  capital,  instead  of  possessing  a 
surplus,  her  pioneers  almost  invariably  began  life 
in  debt. 

New  countries  have  ever  been  compelled,  because 
of  lack  of  labor  and  capital,  to  send  their  raw  products 
to  older  societies  for  manufacture.  To  this  necessity 
Wisconsin  yielded  only  unwillingly.  "At  present," 
lamented  the  State's  foremost  commercial  organiza- 
tion in  1871,  "we  are  sending  our  hard  lumber  east 
to  get  it  back  as  furniture  and  agricultural  implements, 
we  ship  ores  to  St.  Louis  and  New  York,  to  pay  the 
cost  of  bringing  it  back  as  shot,  type,  pipe,  sheet  lead, 
white  lead,  paint,  etc.,  we  ship  away  our  wool  ciop 
and  import  cloths,  carpets,  blankets  and  other 
fabrics;  we  give  rags  for  paper,  and  hides  for  boots 
and  harness,  and  iron  ore  for  stoves— and  our  con- 
sumers all  the  while  are  paying  the  double  costs  of 
this  unnecessary  transportation."^ 

The  people  of  Wisconsin  were  eager  to  correct  this 
unsatisfactory  condition.  To  establish  new  home 
industries  and  further  develop  those  already  in 
existence  were  among  their  most  cherished  ambi- 
tions. All  interests  in  the  State  were  agreed  upon 
the  desirability  of  this  program.  Farmers  longed  to 
see  industrial  communities  grow  up  in  their  midst 
to  which  they  could  sell  the  products  of  their  toil 
at  high  prices  and  without  much  transportation. 
Mechanics  anticipated  finding  in  new  factories  and 

'Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1871,  16. 


MANUFACTURING  125 

workshops  increased  opportunities  for  employment. 
Consumers  promised  themselves  lower  prices  when, 
the  double  cost  of  transporting  raw  material  to  the 
East  and  bringing  it  back  in  the  form  of  finished 
commodities  had  been  eliminated. 

However,  Wisconsin  lacked  the  capital  necessary 
to  produce  this  happy  consummation.  At  every  step 
her  progress  was  thereby  blocked.  She  sought  to 
overcome  the  difficulty  by  converting  her  available 
resources  into  cash  as  rapidly  as  possible  and  by 
inducing  older  communities  in  the  country  to  come 
to  her  support.  Her  newspapers  and  public  docu- 
ments were  constantly  filled  with  accounts  of  the 
splendid  opportunities  for  industrial  investments 
that  her  resources  held  out,  coupled  with  urgent 
solicitations  to  moneyed  men  in  the  East  to  come 
and  take  advantage  of  them.^  The  eagerness  with 
which  she  sought  the  aid  of  outsiders  was  one  of 
the  notable  characteristics  of  her  economic  life.  It 
was  in  striking  contrast  to  her  present  spirit  of  in- 
dependence. Today,  capital,  though  still  everywhere 
welcomed,  is  carefully  hedged  about  by  legal  restric- 
tions designed  to  protect  other  interests  in  society. 
Fifty  years  ago  the  need  of  Wisconsin  was  so  great 
that  capital  was  invited  hither  upon  its  own  terms. 
Wisconsin,  bidding  against  other  communities  similar- 
ly situated  for  the  golden  means  of  industrial  de- 
velopment, gladly  and  without  reservation  placed 
her  future  in  the  hands  of  men  with  money. 

By  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  the  southern 
half  of  Wisconsin  was  sufiiciently  matured  to  make 

1  See,  for  example,  the  annual  messages  of  the  governors  in  Wis.  Mess, 
and  Docs.,  1860-70. 


126  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

real  progress  in  manufacturing.  Rival  interests, 
such  as  speculation  in  land  and  railroad  building, 
which  had  hitherto  absorbed  most  of  the  surplus 
capital  in  the  State  were  eliminated.  The  best  gov- 
ernment lands  in  this  region  were  disposed  of;  the 
prairies  were  under  cultivation;  the  railroad  lines 
most  urgently  needed  were  completed.  The  wealth 
which  southern  Wisconsin  henceforth  accumulated 
and  that  which  it  attracted  from  the  East  it  was  able 
to  invest  in  growing  proportions  in  industrial  enter- 
prises. 

Thus  during  the  sixties,  especially  during  the  latter 
half  of  the  decade,  Wisconsin  established  a  foothold 
as  a  manufacturing  community.  The  number  of  her 
factories  and  mills  in  this  period  considerably  more 
than  doubled;  the  hands  employed  in  them  increased 
almost  threefold. 

"It  is  undoubtedly  true,"  declared  the  secretary  of 
the  Wisconsin  Agricultural  Society  in  1868,  "that  in 
manufactories  Wisconsin  has  made  more  actual 
progress  since  1860  than  in  any  other  one  of  the 
several  departments  of  industry  (agriculture,  lumber, 
and  mining)  we  have  had  under  consideration;  and 
equally  true  that,  in  view  of  the  extraordinary 
natural  facilities  she  possesses  for  a  successful  prose- 
cution of  very  many  important  branches  of  the 
manufacturing  business,  she  has,  as  yet,  relatively 
done  but  little. "^ 

The  communities  in  Wisconsin  best  adapted  to 
the  purposes  of  manufacturing  were  naturally  the 
first  to  feel  the  impulse  of  this  industrial  development. 
Milwaukee,  because  of  her  commanding  position  upon 

I  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1861-68,  56. 


MANUFACTURING  127 

Lake  Michigan,  her  excellent  communications  with 
the  interior,  and  her  large  population,  was  the  leader. 
Even  she,  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  had 
been  chiefly  a  city  of  trade.  "The  business  of  a  large 
share  of  our  citizens,"  observed  the  Milwaukee 
Sentinel  in  1862,  "has  been  to  dispose  of  the  manu- 
factures of  other  people,  and  to  traffic  in  the  rich 
products  of  our  own  broad,  fertile  prairies.  Nor  can 
it  be  said  that  we  have  not  as  a  community  flourished 
almost  unprecedentedly  under  this  state  of  things; 
but  at  times  when  there  has  been  a  failure  of  crops  in 
our  State,  we  have  seen  the  folly  of  relying  for  our 
prosperity  upon  a  traflTicking  business."^ 

To  win  freedom  from  dependence  upon  trade 
Milwaukee  definitely  turned  during  the  later  sixties 
to  manufacturing.'-  So  rapid  was  her  progress  that 
by  1872  one-third  to  one-half  of  her  working  popu- 
lation was  engaged  in  manufactures,  and  the  products 
of  her  factories  were  worth  nearly  $20,000,000.^ 

Other  cities  in  Wisconsin  felt  the  same  impulse 
toward  manufacturing.  Fond  du  Lac  and  Oshkosh 
on  Lake  Winnebago,  enjoying  easy  access  to  the 
pineries  of  the  Wolf  River  as  well  as  excellent  rail 
and  water  communications,  advanced  with  a  pace 
second  only  to  that  of  the  Cream  City.  Racine, 
Sheboygan,  Manitowoc,  and  Kenosha,  lake  ports 
of  local  prominence,  La  Crosse  on  the  Mississippi 
River,  and  a  number  of  interior  railroad  towns, 
notably  Madison,  Janesville,  and  Watertown,  during 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  May  15,  1862. 

2  The  Milwaukee  Manufacturers'  Association  was  organized  Jan.  9. 
1863. 

3  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1872,  22-23.  See  also 
Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Dec.  30,  1871. 


128  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

the  later  sixties  laid  the  foundations  for  industries 
which  have  since  become  important  not  only  to  the 
State  but  to  the  nation. 

A  cluster  of  aspiring  cities  and  villages  upon  the 
lower  Fox  River  enjoyed  advantages  for  manu- 
facturing which  even  at  this  time,  when  natural  gifts 
in  Wisconsin  were  so  abundant  and  ready  to  hand, 
attracted  wide  attention.  The  Fox  River  from  Lake 
Winnebago  to  Green  Bay,  a  distance  of  thirty-five 
miles,  has  a  fall  of  approximately  170  feet.  It  is 
capable  of  generating  water  power  not  only  enormous, 
but  what  is  vastly  more  important,  steady  at  all 
seasons  of  the  year.  Its  flow  is  perfectly  regulated  by 
Lake  Winnebago,  a  great  natural  reservoir  embracing 
an  area  of  nearly  350  square  miles.  Neither  flood 
nor  drought,  so  often  the  bane  of  industries  de- 
pendent on  water  power,  ever  causes  any  considerable 
fluctuations  in  the  lower  Fox.  Neenah,  Menasha, 
Appleton,  and  De  Pere,  which  in  1860,  as  mere  vil- 
lages of  a  few  thousand  inhabitants,  centered  about 
the  falls  of  this  useful  stream,  were  destined  by  nature 
to  become  flourishing  industrial  communities. 

The  prevailing  industries  of  these  several  cities 
during  the  decade  of  the  sixties  naturally  reflected 
the  advantages  and  the  shortcomings  of  Wisconsin 
as  a  manufacturing  state.  For  the  most  part  they  were 
such  as  depended  for  success  primarily  upon  an 
abundance  of  raw  material.  Only  in  rare  instances 
did  they  require  more  than  a  minimum  of  capital 
and  skilled  labor.  The  grinding  of  wheat,  the  manipu- 
lation of  lumber,  the  meat-packing  industry,  the 
burning  of  brick,  such  were  the  arts  that  occupied 
the  mills  and  factories  of  the  State. 


MANUFACTURING  129 

The  milling  of  wheat  was  the  leading  industrial 
interest  of  Wisconsin.  None  other  except  the  sawing 
of  lumber  approached  it  in  importance.  Wheat  flour, 
on  the  basis  of  value,  in  1860  constituted  two-fifths  of 
all  the  manufactures  of  Wisconsin;  in  1870,  when  the 
industries  of  the  State  had  become  somewhat  more 
diversified,  the  fraction  still  stood  at  considerably  more 
than  one-fourth.  In  1860  the  gristmill  product  sold 
for  twelve  times  as  much  as  any  other  commodity  ex- 
cept sawed  lumber  manufactured  in  the  State;  in  1870 
the  proportion  stood  as  eight  to  one.^  Truly  might  it 
be  said  of  Wisconsin  that  her  manufacturing  destinies 
were  bound  up  in  the  millstone  and  the  saw. 

During  the  Civil  War  the  flouring  industry  in 
Wisconsin  made  but  slow  progress.  The  State  sent 
its  enormous  crops  of  wheat  to  market  in  the  form  of 
the  berry  rather  than  in  the  shape  of  flour.  W^hy  it 
did  so  is  not  entirely  clear.  No  doubt  one  important 
reason  was  the  expense  of  transporting  the  latter  to 
the  seaboard.  The  cost  of  shipping  wheat,  even  via 
the  lakes,  was  at  no  time  much  higher  relatively  than 
that  of  sending  flour.  The  difference  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  Civil  War  was  wholly  negligible. 
Indeed,  the  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce  and 
the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade  during  several  milling 
seasons  observed  that  proportionally  charges  on  the 
manufactured  product  were  actually  higher  than 
upon  grain.  Under  such  circumstances  the  East 
preferred  to  do  its  own  milling.  The  flour  exports  of 
Wisconsin  increased  only  from  550,000  barrels  in 
1860  to  625,000  barrels  in  1865.^ 

lU.  S.  Census,  1860,  Manufactures,  657-58;  id.,  1870,  III,  583-84. 

2  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,   1861,  6;  id.,  1865,   17. 


130  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

A  revival  in  the  industry  set  in  at  the  close  of  the 
war.  Carrying  rates  became  favorable,  and  the  flow 
of  water  for  turning  the  mill  wheels  was  all  that 
could  be  desired.  "The  year  1866,"  according  to  the 
Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  "was  one  of  the 
most  prosperous  periods  ever  enjoyed  by  the  millers 
of  Wisconsin  and  other  northwestern  states,  and  the 
impetus  thus  imparted  to  the  business  has  resulted 
not  only  in  a  large  increase  of  the  flour  trade,  but  also 
of  our  milling  facihties."^  By  1868,  although  Wis- 
consin's home  consumption  of  flour  had  increased 
materially  due  to  her  rapidly  expanding  population, 
her  exports  had  grown  to  approximately  875,000 
barrels.^ 

The  recovery  was  only  temporary.  After  1868 
until  well  into  the  next  decade  the  industry  was  at 
a  standstill.  Though  Wisconsin  produced  continually 
greater  wheat  crops,  the  grain  itself  rather  than  its 
product  was  sold  to  consumers  in  the  East.  On  the 
whole  it  may  be  said  that  the  milling  industry  made 
less  progress  in  Wisconsin  during  the  sixties  than 
any  other  important  manufacturing  interest  of  the 
State. 

Prior  to  the  advent  of  the  railroads  the  flouring 
industry  of  Wisconsin  was  widely  dispersed  over  the 
State.  Every  village  had  its  dust-laden  miller  upon 
whom  the  surrounding  country  depended  for  its 
supply  of  flour.      The  local  gristmills  were  usually 

Statistics  in  these  Chamber  of  Commerce  reports  take  no  account  of 
flour  manufactured  within  the  State  and  sent  to  market  via  Chicago.  On 
the  other  hand  they  include  flour  originating  in  Minnesota  and  merely  mar- 
keted by  way  of  Milwaukee.     Corrections  for  these  items  have  been  made. 

'  Id.,  1866,  10. 

*  Id.,  1868,  36. 


MANUFACTURING  131 

unpretentious  in  size  and  backward  in  equipment. 
Most  of  them  were  of  the  familiar  water-wheel  type, 
the  numerous  streams  of  Wisconsin  being  especially 
adapted  to  their  use.  Here  and  there  an  establish- 
ment still  drew  its  motive  force  as  of  yore  from  the 
wind.  A  few  localities,  notably  Milwaukee,  Janes- 
ville,  and  Watertown,  conducted  their  operations 
upon  a  larger  scale.  They  were  debarred,  however, 
by  lack  of  transportation  facilities  from  serving  more 
than  a  restricted  area.  The  country  mills  had  the 
important  advantage  of  proximity  to  the  standing 
grain,  and  on  the  whole  they  were  successful  in  an- 
swering local  requirements. 

When  during  the  fifties  Wisconsin  undertook  to 
manufacture    flour    for    export    a    tendency    toward 
greater  centralization  manifested  itself.     For  a  time 
this   was   barely   perceptible;   later  it   became   very 
marked.     The  chief  obstacle   to  concentration   had 
been  overcome;  by  rail  grain  could  be  moved  with  en- 
tire success  to  localities  especially  adapted  to  the  pur- 
poses of  milling.    In  large  centers  producers  of  flour 
enjoyed    numerous    advantages    over   their   country 
brethren.    They  secured  the  economies  of  large-scale 
production,  incidental  among  which  was  the  cheap- 
ness with  which  they  could  manufacture  flour  barrels. 
They  possessed  a  wider  choice  of  grain  for  gristing 
and  superior  marketing  facilities  for  their  finished  pro- 
duct.   When  during  the  seventies  important  changes 
in  the  flouring  process  rendered  the  machinery  for 
mills  vastly  more  complex  and  expensive  than  it  had 
ever  been  before,  the  movement  of  the  industry  to 
the   cities   commenced   in   earnest.      Country   grist- 
millers  during  the  decade  of  the  sixties  easily  held 


132  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

their  own;  during  the  seventies  they  were  relegated 
to  custom  grinding;  during  the  eighties  and  nineties 
they  were  eliminated  entirely.  In  their  place  de- 
veloped the  powerful  merchant  millers,  men  who 
were  not  so  much  expert  artisans  as  successful  sales- 
men. Today  a  few  immense  city  establishments 
grind  more  and  better  flour  than  all  the  Wisconsin 
gristmillers  together  half  a  century  ago. 

Of  all  Wisconsin  cities  Milwaukee  was  best  fitted 
to  be  a  flouring  center.  Her  railroads  gave  her  easy 
access  to  the  wheat  fields  of  the  interior.  Her  chief 
river,  dammed  about  three  miles  above  its  mouth, 
afforded  her  millers  a  fair  water  power.  Her  com- 
manding position  on  Lake  Michigan  opened  to  her 
manufacturers  the  wide  markets  of  the  world.  These 
advantages  were  partially  offset,  however,  by  a 
serious  difficulty.  The  Milwaukee  River,  upon 
which  the  city  depended  for  motive  power,  was  each 
year  becoming  less  reliable.  The  destruction  of  the 
forests  upon  its  northern  headwaters  rendered  it 
increasingly  subject  to  floods  and  succeeding  periods 
of  low  levels.  Frequently  mills  were  crippled  for 
months  by  lack  of  water  or  by  damages  sustained  in 
the  annual  spring  freshets. 

The  industry  in  the  Cream  City  accurately  reflected 
the  general  situation  in  the  State.  During  the  course 
of  the  war  it  was  practically  at  a  standstill.  The 
202,810  barrels  which  represented  the  city's  milUng 
product  in  1860  also  represented  that  of  1865.^ 
From  the  latter  year  to  1868,  however,  there  was  a 
rapid  advance.  During  1866  new  mills,  equipped 
with  every  modern  appliance,  rose  upon  every  hand. 

1  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  ISGij,  11. 


MANUFACTURING  133 

After  a  particularly  disastrous  flood  in  1866  nearly 
all  the  city  establishments  abandoned  water  power 
and  substituted  steam.  Of  the  sixty-five  run  of 
stone  in  the  several  mills  of  the  metropolis  in  that 
year  only  fifteen  were  still  propelled  by  the  current 
of  the  river.^  The  flour  product  of  the  city  rose 
abruptly  from  212,829  barrels  in  1865  to  625,000 
barrels  in  1868,  almost  a  threefold  increase  in  three 
years. 2  This  swift  expansion  was  succeeded  by  an 
entire  decade  of  quiescence.  That  in  turn  was  fol- 
lowed by  an  era  of  remarkable  growth  which  during 
the  early  nineties  placed  Milwaukee  among  the  great- 
est flour-producing  communities  of  the  world. 

Second  only  to  Milwaukee  in  the  Wisconsin  flouring 
industry  were  the  villages  of  Neenah  and  Menasha. 
Neenah  in  particular  was  distinctly  a  milling  center. 
In  1860  she  possessed  seven  flourishing  mills;  her 
neighbor  across  the  Fox  River  had  three.  Together 
the  two  communities  enjoyed  a  manufacturing  ca- 
pacity of  some  800  barrels  of  flour  per  day.^  During 
the  war  they  made  little  progress,  adding  only  two 
new  mills  to  their  number.  Beginning  with  1866, 
however,  they  forged  rapidly  to  the  front.  By  1870 
they  boasted  fifteen  mills  of  which  Neenah  alone  had 
eleven.  With  forty-five  run  of  stone,  they  had  a 
capacity  for  producing  3,875  barrels  of  flour  every 
twenty-four  hours."  Favored  by  a  vast  water  power 
and  by  excellent  marketing  facilities,  the  only  reason 

^  Id.,  1866,  12;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  June  5,  Aug.  4,  Oct.  3,  and  Nov. 
28,  1866. 

2  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1868,  14. 

3  Menasha  and  Neenah  Manufacturer,  June  6,  1861  ;H7s.  Farmer,  1861, 
103;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Nov.  18,  1863. 

^  Winnebago  County  Press,  May  7,  1870. 


134  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

they  failed  to  overtake  Milwaukee  in  the  race  for 
development  was  that  they  lacked  access  to  the 
great  grain  fields  of  Minnesota,  Iowa,  and  their 
own  State. 

Many  other  flouring  centers  of  local  importance 
were  scattered  over  the  State  during  the  sixties, 
notable  among  which  were  Janesville,  Watertown, 
and  Appleton.  The  region  along  the  line  of  the  old 
La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  Railroad,  rich  in  water 
powers,  supported  scores  of  small  but  flourishing 
mills. ^  These  minor  centers,  though  unimportant  in 
themselves,  in  the  aggregate  furnished  the  bulk  of 
the  flour  manufactures  of  the  State. 

The  milling  process  employed  in  Wisconsin  at  this 
time  was  one  of  long  acceptance  in  the  flouring 
centers  of  the  nation.  It  dated  back  to  the  preceding 
century,  when  that  ingenious  citizen  of  Delaware, 
Oliver  Evans,  invented  the  American  automatic 
flour  mill,  which  rendered  possible  the  conversion 
of  grain  into  flour  without  the  intervention  of  the 
human  hand.^  It  included  a  number  of  improvements 
made  since  that  time,  notable  among  which  were  the 
use  of  French  buhr  instead  of  granite  in  millstones, 
the  substitution  of  silk  for  wool  in  bolting  cloths, 
and  refinements  in  the  processes  of  cleaning  wheat 
and  adjusting  milling  surfaces. 

The  principal  portion  of  the  mill  machinery  was  the 

^  The  distribution  of  the  milling  industry  in  southern  Wisconsin  during 
the  war  was  roughly  indicated  by  the  amount  of  flour  carried  over  the 
several  roads  leading  to  Milwaukee.  The  shipments  over  the  La  Crosse 
&  Milwaukee  Railroad  exceeded  those  of  all  others  combined.  See  Mil- 
waukee Chamber  of  Commerce,  Reports,  1860-65. 

^  For  an  excellent  account  of  the  inventions  and  methods  of  Evans  see 
U.  S.  Census,  1880,  III,  561-64.  See  also  AppletorCs  Cyclopaedia  of  Amer- 
ican Biography,  II,  383-84. 


MANUFACTURING  135 

grinding  mechanism.  This  consisted  of  two  flat, 
circular  stones,  the  upper  of  which  was  delicately 
balanced  to  revolve  upon  the  nether.  The  gristing 
surfaces  of  both  were  grooved  or  dressed  in  a  manner 
calculated  to  give  them  at  once  a  cutting,  squeezing, 
and  crushing  action.  The  "runner,"  as  the  upper 
stone  was  called,  was  set  closely  over  the  lower,  so  that 
in  motion  nearly  its  entire  weight  rested  upon  the 
kernels  of  wheat.  Upon  the  accuracy  with  which 
this  mechanism  was  adjusted,  as  well  as  the  condition 
of  its  parts,  depended  the  success  of  the  milling 
operation. 

The  manufacture  of  flour  under  such  circumstances 
was  by  no  means  the  complicated  art  which  it  is  now. 
The  grain  fresh  from  the  harvest  was  first  thoroughly 
cleaned  and  polished  by  machinery,  then  conveyed 
to  the  rapidly  revolving  stones  where  at  a  single 
grinding  it  was  reduced  to  grist.  When  sufTiciently 
pulverized  it  was  automatically  carried  to  a  sifting 
or  bolting  machine  where  the  fmer  particles  became 
flour,  the  coarser,  middlings,  and  the  husks,  bran. 

This  flat  or  low-grinding  method  of  manufacturing 
flour  had  serious  shortcomings.  Fundamentally  it 
disregarded  the  nature  of  the  grain.  The  wheat 
berry  is  composed  of  three  parts,  a  horny  outer  husk 
which  in  the  milling  process  becomes  bran,  an  inner 
starchy  kernel  which  is  converted  into  flour,  and 
an  oily  germ  or  embryo  which  enters  the  discarded 
middlings.  The  millstones  in  the  low-grinding  process 
crushed  these  several  parts  into  one  indiscriminate 
mass,  thereby  rendering  bolting  unsatisfactory  and 
seriously  injuring  the  quality  of  the  resultant  flour. 
The  system,  moreover,  entailed  the  waste  of  a  valu- 


136  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

able  portion  of  the  wheat.  The  interior  starch  kernel, 
or  endosperm  as  it  is  called,  in  its  natural  state  is 
interlaced  with  a  delicate  network  of  gluten  fibrils, 
denser  in  the  outer  than  in  the  inner  portions.  It 
is  well  known  that  gluten  gives  to  flour  its  rising 
power  and  strength;  but  it  also  imparts  toughness  to 
the  endosperm  in  the  proportion  in  which  it  is  pres- 
ent.^ Under  the  low-milling  methods  the  hard, 
glutinous,  outer  parts  of  the  kernel  were  not  pulver- 
ized as  thoroughly  as  the  soft  inner  layers  and  were 
consequently  bolted  out  as  a  coarse  middlings  prod- 
uct. 

All  these  difficulties  were  magnified  in  the  grinding 
of  spring  wheat.  The  kernel  of  this  grain  is  excep- 
tionally rich  in  gluten  and  therefore  hard  to  reduce 
to  flour.  In  order  to  pulverize  it  satisfactorily  and 
at  the  same  time  secure  a  fair  daily  output  of  grist, 
the  miller  was  compelled  to  run  his  stones  under 
great  pressure  and  at  high  speed.  Heat  was  thereby 
generated  and  despite  ingenious  cooling  contrivances 
the  flour  became  discolored  and  injured  in  quality. 
Winter  wheat,  which  is  relatively  deficient  in  gluten, 
is  correspondingly  soft  in  texture.  It  yielded  readily 
to  the  action  of  the  stones,  and  thus  it  afforded  the 
miller  an  exceptionally  white  and  desirable  product. 

In  yet  another  respect  under  these  milling  methods 
did  spring  wheat  prove  inferior  to  the  winter  variety. 
Under  the  great  pressure  of  the  stones  its  husk, 
which  is  thin  and  brittle,  splintered  and  pulverized. 
The  powdered  bran  thus  produced  could  not  be  wholly 

'  The  most  thorough  modern  discussion  of  the  structure  of  the  wheat 
berry  is  to  be  found  in  WilHam  J  ago,  The  Technology  of  Bread  Making 
(London,  1911). 


MANUFACTURING  137 

eliminated  from  the  flour  by  even  the  most  pains- 
taking sifting.  The  product  was  thereby  discolored, 
its  quality  injured,  and  its  keeping  powers  lowered. 
Winter  wheat,  on  the  contrary,  has  a  tough,  thick 
husk  which  under  pressure  merely  flattens.  The 
miller  was  able  to  sift  it  from  his  grist  so  completely 
as  to  leave  no  trace  of  its  presence. 

By  these  considerations  the  distribution  of  the 
American  flouring  industry  was  dictated  at  this  time. 
St.  Louis,  the  seat  of  winter-wheat  culture  in  the  West, 
was  the  most  celebrated  milling  center  on  the  conti- 
nent. The  Northwest,  though  possessing  the  greatest 
wheat  fields  in  the  world,  was  compelled  to  content 
itself  with  a  secondary  rank  as  a  producer  of  flour. 
The  Wisconsin  gristmill  product,  though  ranking 
high  in  its  own  class,  fell  far  below  the  average 
winter-wheat  varieties.^ 

On  the  continent  of  Europe  the  art  of  milling 
approached  a  state  of  perfection  quite  unknown  in 
America.^  Hungary  in  particular  was  a  center  for 
inventions.  The  Slavic  millers  were  world  famous  for 
their  skill.  Their  flour  was  universally  conceded  to 
be  the  finest  that  was  made.  Their  methods  were 
wholly  unlike  those  employed  in  the  United  States. 
Long  before  the  sixties  they  had  abandoned  the  old 
low-grinding  practice  and  had  developed  in  its  place 
a  remarkable  process  known  as  high  milling  and  grad- 
ual reduction. 

The  system  which  they  employed  was  most 
elaborate.    Instead  of  being  ground  at  a  single  oper- 

^  The  grade  of  flour  chiefly  manufactured  in  Wisconsin  was  known  as 
"Extra  Spring."       Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Reports,  1860-70. 

^  See  articles  under  heading  "Flour"  in  Encyclopedia  Britannica  (9th 
and  11th  editions). 


138  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

ation  the  grain  underwent  a  long  series  of  gradual 
reductions  alternated  with  careful  siftings.  In  the 
early  stages  of  the  process  the  millstones  were  run 
slowly  and  set  well  apart  so  as  merely  to  open  the 
berry  for  the  removal  of  "crease  dirt,"  germ,  and 
husk.  The  inner  starch  kernel  was  left  for  a  time  in 
the  state  of  coarse  granules,  which  after  each  breaking 
were  subjected  to  thorough  sifting  and  purifying. 
The  miller  avoided  as  far  as  possible  making  flour 
in  the  first  operations.  Such  as  did  appear  was 
dirty  and  was  sifted  out  to  be  utilized  in  cheap  side 
products.  Only  when  the  starch  particles  had  been 
freed  from  their  major  impurities  was  the  actual  task 
of  pulverization  begun.  The  latter  was  again  a 
process  of  gradual  refinements,  with  new  siftings 
and  purifications  at  every  turn.  The  method  was 
long  and  expensive  but  it  produced  a  beautiful  white 
product,  pure,  nutritious,  and  of  superior  bread- 
making  quality. 

The  millers  of  America,  quite  oblivious  of  this 
excellent  foreign  process,  were  introduced  to  it  in 
the  early  seventies  by  the  enterprise  of  a  prominent 
citizen  of  Wisconsin.  At  Minneapolis,  Cadwallader 
C.  Washburn,  lumberman,  general,  and  governor 
of  the  Badger  State,  owned  a  large  mill  to  which, 
in  1870,  came  Edward  N.  LaCroix,  a  French  me- 
chanic, with  plans  for  a  remarkable  contrivance 
known  as  a  middlings  purifier.  The  device  was  by 
no  means  original  with  the  Frenchman.  It  had  been 
patented  in  France  early  in  the  sixties,  and  its  prin- 
ciple had  long  been  applied  in  the  great  mills  of 
Hungary.  It  was,  simply  described,  an  arrangement 
of  moving  sieves,  exposed  to  the  action  of  traveling 


MANUFACTURING  139 

brushes  or  air  currents,  and  was  employed  in  Euro- 
pean mills  to  separate  broken  starch  particles  from 
the  bits  of  bran,  dirt,  and  fluffy  fibrils  that  befouled 
them  after  each  reduction  by  the  stones.  It  con- 
stituted, in  short,  the  key  to  the  entire  high-milling 
process.  LaCroix,  who  had  either  heard,  or  read  of  it, 
or  seen  it  in  operation  prior  to  his  emigration  to  the 
New  World,  labored  for  nearly  a  year  in  modifying 
and  perfecting  it;  his  work  was  supplemented  by  that 
of  another  of  Washburn's  employees  named  Smith. 
Together  the  two  produced  an  appliance  intricate 
in  arrangement  and  superior  to  anything  ever  known 
in  the  Old  World. ^ 

The  success  of  the  invention,  if  such  this  adaptation 
may  be  called,  was  instantaneous.  No  sooner  had  it 
reached  perfection  than  the  Washburn  Mill  em- 
braced it  and  with  it  the  high-milling  process,  the 
latter,  however,  in  somewhat  less  elaborate  form 
than  that  in  vogue  in  Hungary.  With  astonishing 
rapidity  other  mills  in  the  Northwest  followed  suit. 
When  in  1873  the  mammoth  Washburn  Mill,  the 
greatest  at  that  time  in  America,  was  erected  at 
MinneapoUs,  it  was  equipped  throughout  with  ma- 
chinery adapted  to  the  new^  methods. ^  By  the  middle 
of  the  seventies  the  "patent"  process,  as  it  w^as  called, 
had  found  its  way  into  every  important  milling 
center  in  the  Northwest,  and  "patent"  flour  was  the 

1  For  a  description  of  this  device  see  U.  S.  Patent  Office,  Reports,  Index 
Volume,  1790-1873,  under  subhead  "Middlings  purifier";  see  also  U.  S. 
Census,  1880,  III,  561-79;  C.  A.  Pillsbury,  "American  Flour,"  in  C.  M. 
Depew,  One  Hundred  Years  of  American  Commerce  (New  York,  1895), 
I,  269-70;  P.  T.  Dondlinger,  The  Book  of  Wheat  (New  York,  1908), 
267-82;  W.  C.  Edgar,  The  Story  of  a  Grain  of  Wheat  (New  York,  1903), 
149-68. 

2  Wis.  Lumbernmn,  June,  1874,  284. 


140  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

acknowledged  peer  among  all  the  gristmill  products 
of  America. 

The  patent  process,  thus  inaugurated,  brought 
about  a  revolution  in  American  flour  milling  such 
as  few  industries  have  ever  undergone.  Awakened 
by  it  to  a  realization  of  the  superiority  of  European 
methods,  western  millers,  during  the  succeeding 
decades,  scoured  the  continent  of  Europe  for  every 
possible  improvement.  Late  in  the  seventies  they 
found  in  Hungary  in  successful  operation  the  roller 
process,  in  which  chilled  iron  rolls  displaced  or  sup- 
plemented millstones  so  that  the  gradual  reduction 
methods  could  be  carried  to  greater  refinement. 
Having  adopted  and  improved  upon  this  they 
branched  out  into  the  new  art  of  tempering  or  con- 
ditioning grain  for  grinding,  in  which  they  Ukewise 
became  proficient.  Today,  after  the  lapse  of  less 
than  half  a  century,  the  American  Northwest  has 
become  the  greatest  milling  center  in  the  entire  world. 

Innovations  such  as  these  served  to  reverse  the 
relative  positions  of  spring  and  winter  wheat.  The 
former,  rich  in  gluten,  under  the  new  processes  pro- 
duced a  stronger  and  richer  flour  than  the  latter,  and 
as  early  as  the  middle  seventies  commanded  a  higher 
price  in  the  grain  markets  of  the  nation.  Minneapolis, 
the  seat  of  American  spring-wheat  culture,  became  the 
greatest  milUng  center  in  the  world;  Milwaukee,  some- 
what less  favorably  situated  with  respect  to  the  western 
grain  fields,  during  the  later  eighties  and  early  nineties 
vied  with  Superior  and  St.  Louis  for  second  place. 

Prominent  among  the  minor  industrial  pursuits  of 
the  State  at  this  time  was  the  manufacture  of  iron. 
This  was  an  industry  for  which  Wisconsin  was  well 


MANUFACTURING  141 

adapted.  Iron  ore  from  the  mines  of  Iron  Ridge  and 
the  upper  peninsula  of  Michigan  could  be  laid  down 
at  her  lake  ports  for  but  little  more  than  the  cost  of 
production.^  Charcoal  could  be  obtained  in  unlimited 
quantities  from  the  boundless  forests  to  the  north- 
ward. Anthracite  coal,  which  the  more  modern 
blast  furnaces  consumed,  could  be  brought  to  the 
State  for  the  bare  costs  of  production  and  of  trans- 
portation by  grain  vessels  returning  from  Buffalo. 
The  farming  states  to  the  west  and  south  afforded  a 
wide  and  ready  market  for  the  products  of  foundries 
and  machine  shops. 

The  smelting  of  iron  ore  was  a  branch  of  the  in- 
dustry that  during  this  period  first  secured  a  sub- 
stantial foothold  in  Wisconsin.  In  1860  there  were 
only  three  blast  furnaces  in  operation  in  the  State 
and  all  of  these  were  of  the  old  charcoal  type.  One 
was  at  Mayville  in  Dodge  County,  one  at  Ironton  in 
Sauk  County,  and  one  was  at  Black  River  Falls  in 
Jackson  County.  In  1865  a  fourth  was  established 
at  Iron  Ridge  in  Dodge  County,  though  in  the  mean- 
time that  at  Black  River  Falls  had  been  abandoned. 
The  real  beginnings  of  the  industry  dated  from  1870 
when  the  Milwaukee  Iron  Company  completed,  in 
connection  with  its  newly  constructed  rolling  mills 
in  the  metropolis,  a  modern  blast  furnace  said  to  have 
been  the  largest  in  the  country.^    This  was  followed 

1  Some  foreign  pig  iron  of  Scotch  and  Pennsylvania  origin  was  consumed 
in  Wisconsin  at  this  time. 

2  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1869,  10-13;  id.,  1870, 
13-14;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Dec.  30,  1871  and  Jan.  1,  1873.  The  North- 
western Iron  Company  at  Mayville  offered  upon  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War  to  undertake  the  manufacture  of  shot  and  shell  for  the  State.  "We  are 
making  arrangements,"  its  vice-president  wrote  to  Governor  Randall  on 
May  20,  1861,  "with  a  gentleman  to  come  here  &  superintend  the  manu- 


142  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

in  the  succeeding  years  by  the  erection  of  two  other 
such  estabUshments  and  a  number  of  smaller  ones 
in  the  lower  Fox  Valley.  By  1873  Wisconsin  had 
nine  ore-reducing  plants  in  active  operation,  of  which 
the  three  in  Milwaukee  were  modern  anthracite 
burners  and  the  remainder  smaller  charcoal  con- 
sumers.^ The  aggregate  pig  iron  output  of  the  State 
in  1873  was  73,984  tons,  of  which  the  quota  of  Mil- 
waukee was  approximately  half.^  Though  not  a  very 
imposing  total,  this  was  a  great  advance  over  the 
25,000  tons  which  had  constituted  the  entire  product 
of  Wisconsin  in  1860.^ 

Milwaukee  led  the  State  not  only  in  smelting  but 
also  in  manufacturing  iron.''  Her  most  important 
branch  of  this  industry  was  the  production  of  railroad 
rails.  She  set  out  upon  it  in  1868,  when  the  Milwaukee 
Iron  Company  erected  within  her  limits  one  of  the 
greatest  rolling  mills  in  the  entire  country.^    Her  suc- 

facture  of  shot  &  shell — he  having  made  large  quantities  at  Troy  for 
the  Government  during  the  Mexican  War  &  is  well  known  by  them.  We 
have  some  assurance  of  finding  a  market  east.  But  my  object  in  writing 
you  is  to  enquire  if  this  State  will  have  occasion  to  purchase  any,  and  if 
so  how  many,  and  of  what  kind  &  sizes?"  Apparently  Governor  Randall 
was  unable  to  offer  the  company  encouragement,  for  the  project  was  pres- 
ently dropped.  See  Ms.  letter  of  F.  Wilkes  to  Governor  Randall,  May  20, 
1861,  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Library. 

1  A  complete  enumeration  of  the  early  blast  furnaces  in  the  State,  their 
production,  and  something  of  their  history  is  given  in  Milwaukee  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  Report,  1864,  35;  1865,  40;  1872,  16-17;  1873,  22-23,  30-31; 
Chamberlin,  Geology  of  Wisconsin,  1873-79,  I.  613-14,  625-26. 

The  ore  smelted  in  the  Fox  Valley  establishments  was  the  product  of 
the  mines  of  Lake  Superior;  that  used  in  Dodge  County  originated  in  the 
Iron  Ridge;  that  reduced  in  Milwaukee  was  a  mixture  of  the  two. 

2  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1873,  31. 
3/rf.,  1872,  16;  Wis.  Agric.  Soc.,  Trans.,  1860,  59. 

^  For  an  enumeration  of  the  advantages  of  Milwaukee  for  manufacturing 
iron  see  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1869,  10-13. 

=iThe  Milwaukee  Iron  Company  was  composed  of  Detroit,  Milwaukee, 
and  Chicago  capitalists,  notable  among  whom  were  E.  B.  Ward  of  Detroit, 


MANUFACTURING  143 

cess  was  assured  from  the  beginning.  The  hard  ore 
of  the  Iron  Ridge  mixed  in  proper  proportion  with 
the  soft  mineral  of  Lake  Superior  afforded  a  product 
that  for  rails  was  unsurpassed — tough,  durable,  and 
of  excellent  wearing  surface.^  The  industry  grew 
apace.  The  first  rails  rolled  in  Milwaukee  passed 
through  the  mills  in  March,  1868.  The  total  output 
of  that  year  was  7,011  tons;  by  1873  it  had  reached 
34,494  tons.2  In  1873  the  Milwaukee  plant  was 
the  second  largest  in  the  United  States.  The  capital 
which  it  represented  amounted  to  $2,250,000,  the 
number  of  men  it  employed  was  1,000,  and  the  value 
of  its  manufactured  product  was  approximately 
$3,000,000.3 

The  foundries  and  machine  shops  of  the  metropolis 
likewise  developed  with  rapidity,  especially  after  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War.  The  foundries  were  engaged 
chiefly  in  the  production  of  locomotive  parts,  stoves, 
hollow  ware,  and  miscellaneous  castings.  The  ma- 
chine shops  found  employment  in  the  manufacture  of 
steam  engines,  boilers,  machinery,  gearing  for  flour 
mills  and  sawmills,  and  repairs  upon  railroad  stock. 
In  1867  Milwaukee  possessed  seventeen  establish- 
ments devoted  exclusively  to  iron  manufactures,  the 
total  annual  product  of  which  amounted  to  $1,500,000.^ 

S.  Clement  of  Chicago,  and  Alexander  Mitchell  of  Milwaukee.  The  com- 
pany was  incorporated  under  the  laws  of  Wisconsin  in  1866.  For  a  de- 
tailed account  of  its  early  history  and  a  description  of  its  plant,  see  Mil- 
waukee Chamber  of  Commerce,  Reports,  1866,  3;  1869,  10-13;  1870, 
13-14;  1871,  21-22;  1872,  29;  1873,29;  Milwaukee  Sen/me/,  Dec.  30,  1871, 
and  Jan.  1,  1873. 

1  Milwaukee   Chamber  of   Commerce,  Reports,   1866-73;  Wis.   Agric. 
Soc,  Trans.,  1869,  42^-44. 

2  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1873,  102. 

3/rf.,  1872,  29;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Dec.  30,  1871  and  Jan.  1,  1873. 
'  Ibid.,  Feb.  1,  1867. 


144  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

By  the  close  of  the  decade  she  had  become  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  important  iron-manufacturing  cen- 
ters in  the  Northwest.^ 

Among  the  several  establishments  of  the  city  at 
this  time  was  one  destined  to  have  a  great  future. 
This  was  the  Reliance  Iron  Works  of  E.  P.  AlHs  & 
Company.  During  the  sixties  it  consisted  of  a  modest 
shop  engaged  chiefly  in  the  production  of  machinery 
for  flour  mills.  In  1867  it  employed  but  seventy-five 
hands,  and  its  total  annual  product  was  worth  not 
more  than  $150,000. ^  Five  years  later  it  employed  350 
men,  and  its  total  annual  product  amounted  to 
approximately  $1,000,000.^  Today  it  employs  thous- 
ands of  men  and  represents  one  of  the  greatest 
manufactories  of  its  kind  in  the  world.  In  1872  the 
press  of  Milwaukee  reported  with  much  gratification 
that  the  Reliance  Works  had  received  from  Japan 
an  order  for  a  portable  flour  mill.^  Today  the  Allis- 
Chalmers  and  West  Allis  Corporation  as  a  matter 
of  course  scatter  their  products  to  the  four  corners 
of  the  globe. 

The  manufacture  of  agricultural  machinery  and 
implements  was  an  industry  that  gave  employment 
to  a  number  of  smaller  cities  and  villages  in  the  State. 
It  owed  its  success  chiefly  to  the  abundance  of  excel- 
lent hardwoods  that  the  forests  of  Wisconsin  afforded. 
Beloit,  Janesville,  Madison,  Whitewater,  and  La- 
Crosse  were  considerable  local  centers  of  reaper  and 
mower  manufacture.  Beloit,  Whitewater,  and  several 
other  cities  were  prominent  in  the  manufacture  of 

1  Ibid.,  Dec.  30,  1871  and  Jan.  1,  1873. 
^Ibid.,  Feb.  1,  1867. 
3  Ibid.,  Jan.  1,  1873  and  Dec.  30,  1871. 
^  Ibid.,  Jan.  1,  1872. 


MANUFACTURING  145 

plows.  Madison,  the  seat  of  sorghum  culture  in  the 
State,  was  the  center  for  the  production  of  sorghum 
mills.  At  Whitewater  the  inventor,  George  Esterly, 
in  1868  produced  5,000  seeders  of  his  own  design; 
in  the  village  of  Horicon,  Van  Brunt  &  Company 
turned  out  3,200  similar  machines;  at  Beaver  Dam, 
Rowell  &  Company  added  its  quota  of  3,000.^ 

Racine  was  a  center  of  threshing-machine  manu- 
facture of  more  than  local  importance.  Her  position 
in  the  industry  she  owed  chiefly  to  Jerome  I.  Case, 
an  industrious  easterner  who  had  begun  life  in  Wis- 
consin in  1842  by  threshing  grain  for  the  farmers  of 
Racine  County.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War 
the  J.  I.  Case  factory  was  one  of  the  largest  in  the 
Northwest;  at  the  close  of  the  decade  it  was  one  of 
the  largest  in  America.  Its  annual  output  of  threshers, 
horsepowers,  and  truck  wagons  was  valued  in  1870 
at  more  than  $1,000,000,  and  its  machines  were  to 
be  found  scattered  over  every  state  and  territory  west 
of  the  Mississippi  River.^ 

The  Civil  War  gave  a  tremendous  stimulus  to  the 
manufacture  of  agricultural  machinery  in  Wisconsin. 
The  absence  of  thousands  of  men  and  boys  who  were 
fighting  the  battles  of  the  Union  compelled  farmers 
to  purchase  labor  conservers  on  a  scale  never  before 
known.  Factories  were  crowded  with  more  orders 
than  they  could  fill.  "The  several  agricultural  shops 
in  this  city,"  reported  the  La  Crosse  Democrat  in  1863, 
"are  driven  with  work  and  hardly  able  to  meet  the  de- 
mands on  them  for  threshing  machines,  reapers,  fan- 
ning mills,  &c.    A  million  more  dollars  could  be  profit- 

1  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1861-68,  53-54. 
'Ibid.;  Western  Monthly,  September,  1870,  161-64. 

10 


146  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

ably  invested  here  in  the  manufacture  of  farm  tools 
and  labor  saving  implements  of  all  kinds.  There  is  no 
end  to  the  demand  which  increases  each  year  in 
astonishing  ratio. "^  In  1860  the  J.  I.  Case  Company 
at  Racine  produced  300  threshing  machines;  in  1865, 
500;  in  1870,  1,300.^  At  Horicon  the  Van  Brunt 
Company  in  1861  manufactured  60  seeders;  in  1863, 
700;  in  1866.  1,300;  in  1869,  3,800.^  At  Madison, 
E.  W.  Skinner  &  Company  began  the  manufacture 
of  sorghum  mills  in  1861  by  making  a  single  mill; 
in  1863  the  number  had  increased  to  100;  in  1865  it 
was  500.^  In  every  part  of  the  State  the  period  of 
the  Civil  War  saw  rapid  advance  in  this  important 
branch  of  manufacture. 

Almost  equal  in  importance  to  the  manufacturing 
of  iron  were  the  industries  that  centered  about  the 
utilization  of  lumber.  These  constituted  distinct 
interests  not  to  be  confused  with  the  rough  sawing 
of  the  forest  product.  They  consisted  in  the  fashion- 
ing of  hard  and  soft  wood  into  articles  of  commerce 
as  contrasted  with  the  cutting  of  logs  into  material 
for  building.  They  were  activities  for  which  no  state 
in  the  Union  was  better  equipped  by  natural  en- 
dowments than  Wisconsin. 

These  interests  centered  in  the  lower  Fox  Valley 
and  along  the  shore  of  Lake  Michigan.  Menasha, 
Two  Rivers,  and,  after  1868,  Peshtigo  were  the 
principal  abode  of  woodenware  manufactures.^     Me- 

1  La  Crosse  Democrat,  July  28,  1863. 

2  Wis.  Fanner,  October,  1860,  294;  Racine  Advocate,  Feb.  8,  1865;  Mil- 
waukee Sentinel,  Feb.  5  and  Oct.  1,  1867,  and  June  27,  1872. 

3  Hislori)  of  Dodge  Counli/,  Wisconsin,  482. 

nV.  J.  Park,  Ilistorij  of  Madison  (Madison,  1877),  135. 
6  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1870,  66. 


MANUFACTURING  147 

nasha  in  1870  had  the  greatest  tub,  pail,  and  churn 
factory  west  of  the  Ohio.^    It  boasted  at  that  time, 
also,  the  largest  hub  and  spoke  factory  in  the  North- 
west.2     Every  city  in  the  lower  Fox  Valley,  and  not- 
ably Appleton,  De  Pere,  and  Menasha,  manufactured 
large  quantities  of  staves  and  heading.     During  the 
later  sixties  Sheboygan  was  a  growing  producer  of 
chairs.     Fond  du  Lac,  Racine,  and  Milwaukee  were 
notable  centers  of  sash,  door,  and  blind  manufacture. 
In  1868  the  factory  of  C.  J.  L.  Meyer  at  Fond  du  Lac 
ranked  as  the  largest  in  the  world,  producing  25,- 
000,000   lights   of   window   sash,   80,000   doors,   and 
62,000  pairs  of  blinds,  valued  altogether  at  nearly 
$1,000,000.3    Racine,  Milwaukee,  and  Kenosha  were 
well-known  producers  of  farm  and  lumber  wagons.^ 
At  Racine  the  establishment  of  Fish  Brothers  was 
one  of  the  largest  of  its  kind  in  America,  with  an 
output  in  1868  of  3,000  wagons,  valued  at  $300,000. 
Milwaukee  was  a  considerable  center  of  furniture, 
cabinet,   and  willow  ware  manufacture,   her  output 
in  1868  amounting  in  value  to  approximately  $500,000. 
Fond  du  Lac  was  the  home  of  the  Chicago  &  North- 
western Railroad  car  works,  which  during  the  middle 
sixties  turned  out  annually  from  500  to  600  box  cars, 
flat  cars,  and  coaches.^     La  Crosse  during  the  later 
sixties  supported  the  largest  shipyard  on  the  upper 
Mississippi  River,  where  light-draught  packets  and 
barges  for  the  river  trade  were  constructed  in  con- 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Dec.  22,    1871;   Winnebago  Co.  Press,  July   1, 
1871. 

^Ibid.,  June  18,  1870  and  July  1,  1871. 

3  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1861-68,  54-55. 

*Ibid.,  53;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Dec.  29,  1868. 

5  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Dec.  1,  1865;  Green  Bay  Advocate,  Dec.  7,  1865. 


148  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

siderable  numbers.^  Milwaukee,  Green  Bay,  Mani- 
towoc, De  Pere,  and  Peshtigo  maintained  shipyards 
of  local  importance  in  which  schooners  and  steamers 
for  the  lake  commerce  were  built  and  repaired. 
Oshkosh  during  the  Civil  War  took  up  the  construc- 
tion of  grain  barges  to  be  used  on  the  Mississippi 
River.  In  addition  scores  of  cities  and  villages  in 
southeastern  Wisconsin  sustained  upon  a  small  scale 
activities  of  various  kinds,  but  all  of  them  centered 
about  the  manipulation  of  wood.  Thus,  during  the 
later  sixties,  Wisconsin  laid  the  foundations  for 
future  prominence  in  the  manufacture  of  the  products 
of  the  greatest  of  her  natural  resources. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  manufacture  of  wood 
was  the  tanning  and  utilization  of  leather.  Wisconsin 
successfully  established  herself  during  our  period  in 
what  has  since  become  one  of  her  most  important 
industries.  The  lake-shore  cities  of  the  State,  and 
especially  Milwaukee,  were  well  equipped  for  its 
successful  prosecution.  They  had  access  to  abundant 
supplies  of  tan  bark.  They  had  excellent  facilities  for 
collecting  hides  and  pelts  from  the  interior.^  For  their 
finished  products  they  possessed  a  wide  and  con- 
venient market. 

As  the  result  of  such  advantages  Milwaukee  forged 
rapidly  to  the  front.  In  1860  she  had  only  nine 
tanneries,  of  which  but  two  were  substantial  estab- 
lishments.^     By  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  she  had 

1  La  Crosse  Democrat,  July  7,  1863;  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1870,  428. 

*The  number  of  hides  shipped  to  Milwaukee  in  1860  was  85,409;  in 
1873  it  was  203,416.  The  number  of  sheep  pelts  sent  to  that  market  in 
1860  was  too  small  to  be  enumerated;  in  1873  it  was  approximately 
100,000. 

^T^e  tanning  industry  was  undergoing  rapid  changes  at  this  time, 
machinery  being  substituted  for  hand  labor  in  all  the  larger  establishments. 


MANUFACTURING  149 

fifteen;  by  1872  she  had  thirty.^  The  capacity  of  her 
individual  tanneries,  moreover,  steadily  grew.  In 
1872  those  owned  by  Pfister  &  Vogel  and  the  Wis- 
consin Leather  Company  took  rank  among  the 
largest  in  the  entire  country.-  The  leather  output 
of  the  metropolis  in  the  meantime  rose  by  leaps  and 
bounds.  In  1860  it  was  45,000  hides,  18,000  calf  and 
kip  skins,  and  a  small  quantity  of  sheep  pelts.^  By 
the  close  of  the  Civil  War  it  was  more  than  twice 
this  amount.''  By  1872,  it  had  become  158,523  hides, 
125,000  sheep  pelts,  and  a  proportionate  quantity  of 
calf  and  kip  skins.^  With  the  total  value  of  these 
products  amounting  in  1872  to  $2,560,000,  Mil- 
waukee could  claim  the  distinction  of  being  the  largest 
tanning  center  in  the  West.^ 

Other  lake  ports  of  local  prominence  in  the  industry 
were  Racine,  Two  Rivers,  and  Two  Creeks.  Racine 
at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  sustained  eight  tanneries; 

For  excellent  descriptions  of  the  tanning  methods  in  vogue,  see  Racine 
Advocate,  Feb.  1,  1865;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  5,  1865  and  May  30, 
1872. 

1  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1860,  34-35;  Milwaukee 
Sentinel,  Jan.  5,  1865,  and  Dec.  30,  1871. 

2  For  a  detailed  description  of  these  see  ibid.,  Jan.  5,  1865,  May  20  and 
Aug.  27,  1870,  Dec.  30,  1871,  and  May  30,  1872;  Milwaukee  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  Report,  1865,  31;  1867,  40;  1869,  63;  1870,  14-15. 

3  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  1,  1861;  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
Report,  1860,  34-35. 

'  Id.,  1865,  28;  id.,  1866,  43. 

5  Id.,  1872,  80;  id.,  1871,  21;  id.,  1873,  86.  Hides  in  process  of  manu- 
facture became  harness,  sole,  and  upper  leather;  calf  and  kip  skins  were 
converted  into  finished  products  of  the  same  name;  sheep  pelts  became 
linings  and  bindings. 

A  considerable  portion  of  the  Wisconsin  product  was  consumed  at  home 
in  the  manufacture  of  boots  and  shoes.  Milwaukee  had  several  large 
factories,  notable  among  which  was  that  of  Bradley  &  Metcalf.  The 
manufacture  of  footwear  in  Wisconsin  at  this  time  was  carried  on  chiefly 
in  small  shops  widely  dispersed  over  the  State.     See  post,  170-72. 

8  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  1,  1873. 


150  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

two  years  later,  a  dozen. ^  Two  Rivers  and  Two 
Creeks  in  the  leather  industry  were  really  but  out- 
posts of  Milwaukee. 2  At  the  first-named  village  the 
Wisconsin  Leather  Company  maintained  two  im- 
mense tanneries;  Guido  Pfister  in  1862  built  up 
Two  Creeks  about  one  of  his  great  establishments.^ 
The  single  factor  dictating  their  selection  for  this 
work  was  their  proximity  to  the  northern  supplies  of 
hemlock  bark.  When  near  the  close  of  the  decade  the 
economies  of  large-scale  production  demanded  the 
concentration  of  the  industry  in  the  metropolis  the 
tanneries  of  these  cities  were  one  after  another 
removed,  sold,  or  restricted  in  their  operations. "^ 

The  pork-packing  industry  of  Wisconsin  even  more 
than  the  tanning  of  leather  was  dominated  by  Mil- 
waukee. The  interior  of  the  State  slaughtered  and 
salted  for  eastern  export  only  a  few  thousand  hogs 
a  year.  For  the  most  part  it  contented  itself  with 
butchering  foi  local  consumption  or  for  the  supply 
of  the  lumber  camps  to  the  northward. 

Milwaukee,  on  the  contrary,  was  a  great  meat 
exporter.  Drawing  her  supplies  of  live  and  dressed 
hogs  from  interior  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and  Minnesota,  she 
sent  barreled  pork,  lard,  hams,  middles,  and  shoulders 
to  every  part  of  the  East  as  well  as  to  England." 

1  Racine  Advocate,  Feb.  1,  1865  and  Jan.  2,  1867. 

2  During  the  summer  months  the  leather  manufactured  here  was  sent 
to  Milwaukee  by  the  lake  route;  during  the  winter  it  was  carried  overland 
by  team.  When  in  1862  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  Railroad  was  com- 
pleted to  Green  Bay,  the  tannery  product  was  commonly  carted  to  the 
latter  city  and  thence  shipped  by  rail  to  Milwaukee. 

3  R.  G.  Plumb,  Hislorij  of  Manitowoc  County  (Manitowoc,  1904),  39-40; 
Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Aug.  27,  1870. 

*  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1869,  63-64. 

*  For  excellent  description  of  the  packing  process  employed  in  Milwaukee's 
largest  establishment  at  this  time  see  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  Jan.  5,  1865. 


MANUFACTURING  151 

Plankington  &  Armour,  Layton  &  Company,  Van 
Kirk,  McGeoch  &  Company,  and  others  during  the 
sixties  built  up  packing  plants  that  were  counted 
among  the  largest  in  the  entire  country.  In  1869 
the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railway  Company  es- 
tablished within  the  heart  of  the  city  new  and  ca- 
pacious Union  Stock  Yards,  equipped  with  every 
modern  convenience  for  receiving,  feeding,  and  yard- 
ing hogs  and  cattle. ^  The  packers  of  the  metropolis, 
who  in  1860  had  cut  for  salting  only  60,129  hogs,  in 
1866  cut  133,370  and  in  1871,  313,118.  This  was 
more  than  a  fivefold  increase  in  a  period  of  eleven 
years.2  From  a  position  of  comparative  insignificance 
in  the  industry  Milwaukee  thus  rose  within  a  decade 
to  fourth  place  among  all  the  pork-packing  centers 
of  the  nation.^ 

Unlike  most  of  the  industries  of  Wisconsin  the 
manufacture  of  lager  beer  had  its  origin  chiefly  in 
a  social  factor.  This  was  the  presence  of  a  large 
German  element  in  the  population  of  the  State. 
The  Wisconsin  pioneers  of  Teutonic  stock  apparently 
found  it  impossible  to  accustom  themselves  to  the 
beverages  usually  consumed  by  Americans,  and 
wherever  they  congregated  in  any  numbers  there 
lager-beer  breweries  quickly  made  their  appearance. 
The  pure  water  obtainable  in  all  parts  of  the  State  as 
well  as  the  excellent  grade  of  hops  and  barley  that 

1  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1869,  25. 

2/rf.,  1861,  20;  id.,  1871,  71-72. 

^  Id.,  1872,  21.  The  beef-packing  industry  of  Milwaukee  developed 
rapidly  during  the  Civil  War,  then  as  quickly  dwindled  to  insignificance. 
The  same  was  true  of  Chicago.  Kansas  City  during  this  decade  estab- 
lished itself  as  the  great  beef  market  of  the  West.  The  number  of  cattle 
packed  in  Milwaukee  in  1860  was  7,876;  in  1864,  18,978;  in  1871, 
2,046. 


152  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

could  be  grown  upon  its  soil  were  other,  though  less 
important,  factors  in  determining  the  growth  of  this 
interest. 

Milwaukee  was  then  as  now  the  chief  center  of 
the  industry.  She  owed  her  position  primarily  to 
her  supply  of  excellent  water,  her  easy  access  to 
the  hop  gardens  and  barley  fields  of  the  interior,  her 
commanding  marketing  facilities,  and  above  all  her 
overwhelming  Teutonic  population.  Her  German 
citizens  not  only  afforded  a  dependable  market  for 
her  product  but  provided  the  knowledge  and  skill 
necessary  for  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  in- 
dustry.^ The  names  of  the  most  prominent  brewers 
of  Milwaukee  during  the  sixties  are  sufficient  indica- 
tion that  this  interest  was  in  no  inexperienced  hands — 
Philip  Best,  Fred  Pabst,  Charles  Melms,  Valentine 
Blatz,  Joseph  Schlitz,  Franz  Falk,  Fred  Miller, 
Jacob  Obermann.  These  were  the  men  whose  native 
skill  in  a  traditional  German  industry  built  up  the 
brewing  interests  of  the  metropolis  of  Wisconsin. ^ 

The  Civil  War  powerfully  stimulated  the  brewing 
industry  not  only  in  Wisconsin  but  in  the  entire 
country.  This  it  did  directly  by  initiating  notable 
social  changes;  indirectly,  by  discouraging  the  con- 
sumption of  other  beverages.  Prior  to  1861  Germans 
alone  were  consumers  of  the  amber  fluid.  Americans 
looked  upon  the  habit  of  beer  drinking,  as  upon  all 
foreign  customs,  with  nativistic  contempt.  The  war 
happily  broadened   national   sympathies   and   eradi- 

1  For  an  excellent  description  of  the  brewing  process  see  Milwaukee 
Sentinel,  Sept.  1,  1866. 

2  For  detailed  accounts  of  these  men  and  their  breweries  see  H.  L. 
Conard,  History  of  Milwaukee  (Chicago,  1895).  II,  27-39;  F.  A.  Flower, 
History  of  Milwaukee  (Chicago,  1881),  1456-1470. 


MANUFACTURING  153 

cated  narrow  race  prejudices.  The  despised  foreign 
born  demonstrated  upon  the  battle-field  their  loyalty 
to  the  land  of  their  adoption,  and  Germans  in  par- 
ticular won  admiration  for  their  response  to  the  call 
to  arms.  A  grateful  nation  at  first  tolerated,  then 
actually  adopted,  many  of  the  habits  and  customs 
of  its  Teutonic  sons.  Americans  during  the  sixties 
made  trial  of  German  beer  and  found  it  to  their  hking. 
They  appreciated  the  fact  that  it  was  lighter  and 
less  deleterious  in  its  effects  than  the  whisky  which 
had  hitherto  constituted  their  favorite  drink.  De- 
spite the  protests  and  warnings  of  prohibitionists  the 
Teutonic  beverage  rapidly  gained  favor. 

To  this  natural  development  Congress  added  the 
indirect  aid  of  legislative  discrimination.  Compelled 
by  the  heavy  burdens  of  the  war  enormously  to 
increase  the  Federal  revenues,  it  proceeded  in  1862 
to  impose  a  drastic  excise  tax  upon  ardent  spirits 
and  a  less  harsh  assessment  upon  beer  and  ale.^  The 
brewers  of  the  country,  quick  to  seize  their  advantage, 
in  November,  1862  organized  a  strong  National 
Association,^  which  during  the  war,  and  ever  since, 
has  been  able  to  persuade  the  government  to  retain 
the  principle  of  favoritism. 

German  beer,  thus  protected,  soon  became  the 
favorite  American  drink.  "The  consumption  of 
hops  in  America,"  observes  the  Wisconsin  Farmer  in 

'  U.  S.  statutes  at  Large,  37  Cong.,  2  sess.,  chap.  119,  July  1,  1862.  In 
1860  the  distilleries  of  Milwaukee  produced  12,000  barrels  of  high  wines. 
As  a  result  of  the  high  war  tax  their  output  by  1865  had  fallen  to  3,046. 
In  1868  the  Federal  tax  was  reduced  from  $2  per  gallon  to  about  60  cents 
per  gallon,  and  by  1870  the  high-wineproductof  the  city  was  22,867  barrels. 

2  The  fourth  congress  of  this  organization  was  held  in  Milwaukee, 
Sept.  8,  1864.  The  discussion  was  confined  exclusively  to  problems  of 
Federal  taxation.    See  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Sept.  14,  1864. 


154  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

1868,  "has  been  vastly  on  the  increase  for  several 
years,  especially  so  since  the  whisky-tax  put  such  an 
estoppel  on  the  distillery  industry.  And,  moreover, 
the  taste  for  beer  and  ale,  and  the  custom  and  fashion 
making  it  'respectable'  to  drink  it,  is  largely  growing. 
Statistics  show  the  increase  in  consumption,  one  year 
greater  than  its  predecessor,  to  have  been  thirty  per 
centum,  for  several  years  past — since  war  times. "^ 

These  changes  were  speedily  reflected  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  brewing  industry.  Prior  to  the  war  it  had  been 
a  widely  dispersed  village  business,  local  in  its  market, 
and  serving  only"  an  alien  element  in  the  population. 
It  now  rose  to  the  dignity  of  a  great  export  interest, 
centering  in  a  few  large  cities  and  ministering  to  the 
thirst  of  every  class  and  condition  of  American  society. 

Milwaukee  more  than  any  other  city  in  the  country 
made  capital  of  this  development.  In  1860  the  out- 
put of  her  breweries  was  but  36,000  barrels;  in  1865 
it  had  increased  to  55,000  barrels;  and  in  1873,  to 
260,120  barrels.2  The  growth  of  her  individual 
establishments  was  even  more  surprising.  In  1863 
the  Pabst  Brewing  Company  produced  3,677  barrels; 
in  1865,  10,908;  in  1873,  100,028.^  The  Joseph 
Schlitz  Company  in  1862  produced  1,605  barrels; 
in  1865,  4,400;  in  1872,  32,608.^  By  1872  the  Pabst 
establishment  was  already  the  largest  in  America;^ 

1  Wis.  Former,  1868,  321. 

2  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1860,  40;  id.,  1865,  43; 
id.,  1873,  103.  The  amount  of  ale  manufactured  in  the  city  in  1860  was 
9,800  barrels;  in  1867,  3,000  barrels.  See  id.,  1860,  40;  id.,  1867,  50;  Mil- 
waukee Sen/me/,  Jan.  1,  1861  and  Sept.  1,  1866. 

■^Flower,  History  of  Milwaukee,  1458. 

^  Conard,  Ilisiorij  of  Milwaukee,  II,  38;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  1, 1873. 
*  Ibid.,  Dec.  30,  1871.    The  Pabst  concern  was  then  known  as  the  Philip 
Best  Company. 


MANUFACTURING  155 

its  product  was  favorably  known  and  consumed  in 
two  continents,  penetrating  even  to  the  famous  beer 
gardens  of  Bavaria.  Milwaukee  by  1872  had  become 
the  greatest  beer-exporting  center  in  the  West,^  a 
primacy  that  she  now  holds  with  respect  to  the 
entire  world. 

The  manufacture  of  woolen  cloth  was  another 
industry  that  made  rapid  progress  in  Wisconsin 
especially  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War.  Woolen 
mills  during  this  period  rose  upon  every  hand.  Their 
number  in  1859  was  15;  in  1865,  19;  in  1871,  54.^  Their 
combined  equipment,  measured  in  sets  of  manu- 
facturing cards,  in  1859  was  but  15,  in  1871  was  63. 
The  quantity  of  raw  wool  converted  into  cloth  and 
yarn  in  these  estabUshments  rose  from  a  few  hundred 
thousand  pounds  in  1859  to  1,620,000  pounds  in 
1871.^  Nearly  one-half  the  wool  product  of  the  State 
during  the  later  sixties  was  thus  consumed  by  home 
manufactures. 

In  the  later  sixties  Wisconsin  gave  to  civilization 
one  of  the  most  useful  of  modern  inventions.  This 
was  the  typewriter,  perfected  and  patented  in  Mil- 
waukee in  1868.  C.  Latham  Sholes,  journalist  and 
prominent  State  politician,  was  the  ingenious  in- 
ventor.    Associated  with  him  were  S.  W.   Soule,  a 

1  The  destruction  of  the  breweries  of  Chicago  in  the  great  fire  of  1871 
was  a  powerful  factor  in  stimulating  the  Milwaukee  industry. 

2  U    S    Census,  1860,  Manufactures,   658;    W.  P.  Blake,  Reports  of  the 
United  States  Commissioners  to  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1867  (Washington 
1870)   VI,  122;  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1871,  9-10.    Lists  of  the  several 
woolen  mills  in  the  State  and  details  as  to  their  operations  are  given  m 
id.,  1869,  45-56;  id.,  1870,  63-66;  id.,  1871,  9-10. 

3  Ibid  The  Wisconsin  Woolen  Manufacturers'  Association  was  organized 
at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War.  The  proceedings  of  its  annual  conventions 
for  the  years  1868  to  1871  are  in  Appleton  Crescent,  Mar.  21,  1868;  Mil- 
waukee Sentinel,  April  14,  1870  and  April  13,  1871. 


156  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

printer,  and  Carlos  Glidden,  a  retired  manufacturer. 
These  three  men  in  the  winter  of  1866-67  caught  the 
suggestion  of  a  writing  machine  from  a  paging  device 
that  they  had  for  some  time  been  laboring  to  perfect. 
Sholes  in  particular  was  struck  by  the  idea  of  pro- 
ducing a  mechanical  apparatus  that  would  displace 
the  slow  and  laborious  pen;  to  its  materialization  he 
devoted  not  only  his  own  enthusiastic  efforts  but 
those  of  a  skillful  German  clockmaker  of  Milwaukee 
named  Mathias  Schwalbach.  By  September,  1867 
he  and  his  friends  had  completed  their  first  workable 
model.  It  was  a  crude  affair,  roughly  resembling 
in  appearance  a  sewing  machine,  though  with  a 
keyboard  like  that  of  a  piano. ^  Patents  were  obtained 
in  the  summer  of  1868,  after  which  five  years  were 
spent  in  modifying  and  perfecting  the  mechanism. 
Schwalbach  in  the  course  of  his  labors  suggested  the 
banked  keyboard.  The  now  famous  Edison,  to  whom 
Sholes  went  for  counsel,  contributed  his  aid.^  The 
result  was  a  device  embodying  in  its  construction 
the  basic  principles  of  every  typewriter  that  has 
since  come  into  use.^ 

Sholes,  like  many  other  notable  inventors,  lost  the 
fruits  of  his  great  achievement.  Little  realizing  its 
worth,  he  sold  out  his  rights  to  a  far-seeing  promoter 
for  the  paltry  sum  of  $12,000.    He  died  in  Milwaukee 

1  U.  S.  Patent  Office,  Report,  1868,  II,  175,  234;  IV,  803,  887.  For 
a  description  of  later  patents  see  Encyclopaedia  Britannica. 

*  System,  X,  230. 

'  This  account  is  gleaned  from  the  Milwaukee  Evening  Wisconsin, 
Sept.  26,  1883;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  12,  1902;  Wis.  Hist.  Soc,  Proc, 
1901,  164-66;  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  Bulletin,  February,  1916, 
264-69;  The  Sholes  &  Glidden  Typewriter  (advertisement  published  in 
New  York  in  1874  or  1875).  A  sketch  of  the  life  of  Sholes  may  be  found 
in  Appletons'  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography,  V,  515. 


TfiE  FIRST  TYPEWRITER 
Invented  by  C.  L.  Sholcs  and  now  Owned  by  Buffalo  Historical  Society 


MANUFACTURING  157 

in  1890,  after  a  long  illness,  in  comparative  poverty. 

The  typewriter  in  the  meantime  won  rapid  accept- 
ance. In  March,  1873  James  Densmore,  the  man  to 
whom  the  inventor  had  disposed  of  his  patents, 
entered  into  a  contract  with  Remington  &  Sons, 
proprietors  of  the  celebrated  New  York  Armory,  for 
the  manufacture  of  25,000  machines.  Before  many 
years  the  Remington  machine  was  known  from  one 
end  of  the  land  to  the  other.  Today  no  business  office 
worthy  of  the  name  in  the  entire  world  is  without  its 
complement  of  typewriters. 

During  the  decade  of  the  sixties  the  cities  of 
Wisconsin,  and  especially  Milwaukee,  laid  the  founda- 
tions for  future  prominence  in  the  field  of  manu- 
facturing. Their  progress,  temporarily  retarded  by 
the  Civil  War,  after  the  return  of  peace  was  astonish- 
ingly rapid.  By  1873  the  municipalities  of  the  State 
no  longer  depended  for  a  livelihood  solely  upon  trade. 
Their  interests  had  become  diversified;  in  their  own 
workshops  and  mills  they  consumed  the  raw  materials 
that  the  State  produced.  Wisconsin  had  at  length 
realized  her  cherished  ambition  of  possessing  home 
manufactures. 


CHAPTER  VI 

LABOR! 

The  Civil  War  produced  no  great  problem  of 
industrial  labor  in  Wisconsin.  Manufacturing  in  the 
State  in  1861  was  in  its  infancy ;  wage  earners  as  a  class 
were  a  negligible  factor.  Five-sixths  of  the  State's 
800,000  inhabitants  gained  their  livelihood  by  tillage 
of  the  soil.  There  was  no  city  in  Wisconsin  beside 
Milwaukee  that  could  boast  a  population  of  more 
than  7,500,  and  even  Milwaukee  was  more  a  trading 
than  an  industrial  center.-  In  a  community  thus 
simply  organized,  labor  difficulties  could  not  assume 
the  importance  that  attended  them  in  the  highly 
complex  and  inelastic  manufacturing  communities 
of  the  East.  Yet  even  in  Wisconsin  the  changes 
wrought  by  the  Civil  War,  and  the  readjustments 
that  followed,  led  to  organized  resistance  by  wage 
earners;  even  in  this  frontier  region  there  developed 
a  distinct,  class-conscious  movement  of  industrial 
labor — the  first  in  the  history  of  the  State. 

The  close  of  the  year  1860  found  the  industries  of 
Wisconsin  just  recovering  from  the  disastrous  panic 
of  1857.    An  extraordinary  wheat  crop,  the  greatest 

'  I  am  under  deep  obligation  to  Prof.  John  R.  Commons  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin,  whose  lectures  on  the  American  labor  movement 
from  1860  to  1893  furnished  the  national  background  for  this  study;  also 
to  Selig  Perlman  of  the  Federal  Industrial  Commission  for  kind  per- 
mission to  use  material  relating  to  the  national  labor  movement  during 
the  Civil  War,  prepared  by  him  while  research  assistant  to  Professor 
Commons. 

'The  population  of  Milwaukee  in  1861  was  approximately  50,000. 

[  158  1 


LABOR  159 

ever  raised  in  the  State,  had  been  harvested,  and 
under  its  stimulus  every  interest  was  springing  into 
new  life.  But  war  descended  upon  the  nation,  fol- 
lowed by  the  collapse  of  Wisconsin's  financial  system, 
and  once  more  industry  was  paialyzed.  Not  until 
early  in  1863  when  the  greenback  inflation  first  made 
itself  felt  in  rising  prices,  and  the  maintenance  of 
huge  Union  armies  brought  increased  employment 
to  northern  workshops  and  mills,  was  the  black  cloud 
of  industrial  depression  again  lifted. 

Partly  as  a  result  of  hard  times,  there  was  no  un- 
usual scarcity  of  industrial  labor  in  the  State  during 
the  first  two  and  a  half  years  of  the  war.  The  drain 
of  men  into  the  army  was  comparatively  slow,  not 
more  than  30,000  being  absent  in  military  service 
at  the  close  of  1863.  Of  these,  moreover,  approxi- 
mately 21,000  were  at  the  time  of  their  enlistment 
mere  youths  of  twenty-one  years  or  under,^  and  the 
absence  of  such  of  them  as  came  from  the  cities,  where 
they  had  not  yet  fitted  themselves  into  the  industrial 
life  of  their  communities,  was  not  likely  to  be  seriously 
felt.2  Whatever  lack  of  labor  was  produced  by  en- 
listments was  abundantly  compensated  for  by  the 
same  factors  that  came  to  the  rescue  of  the  farmers. 
There  was  some  complaint,  it  is  true,    during    1863 

1  On  Nov.  1,  1863  the  number  of  troops  who  had  enUsted  from  Wiscon- 
sin was  41,775,  of  whom  24,812  were  still  in  the  service.  In  approx- 
imating 30,000  as  the  number  of  absentees  from  the  State  I  have  in- 
cluded deaths,  desertions,  and  missing.  It  is  usually  estimated  that 
about  five-sevenths  of  the  Union  soldiers  at  the  time  of  their  enlistment 
were  twenty-one  years  of  age  or  under. 

2  The  enlistment  of  boys  was  a  more  embarrassing  matter  on  the 
farms  than  it  was  in  the  cities,  for  agricultural  apprenticeship  begins 
early,  and  at  eighteen  or  nineteen  the  boy  has  already  become  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  life  of  the  farm.  The  city  mechanic  becomes  a 
skilled  workman  at  a  much  later  age. 


160  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

of  lack  of  labor  for  railroad  construction  and  for 
logging  operations  in  the  northern  lumber  camps, 
but  these  were  exceptional  and  may  be  readily  ex- 
plained by  the  irregularity  and  uncertainty  of  the 
wages  paid,  the  hardness  of  the  fare,  and  the  seasonal 
character  of  the  employment.^ 

As  a  corollary  of  this  comparative  sufficiency  of 
labor,  the  industrial  workers  of  the  State  shared  but 
little  in  the  prosperity  that  followed  1863.  While 
prices  were  rising  by  leaps  and  bounds,  wages  ad- 
vanced with  but  a  laggard  step.  At  the  end  of  1863 
the  wholesale  price  of  flour  in  Milwaukee  was  $4.80 
to  $5.60  per  barrel  as  against  $3.70  to  $3.85  in  1861; 
potatoes,  40  cents  to  45  cents  per  bushel  as  against 
25  to  30  cents  in  1861;  mess  pork,  $16.75  to  $17  per 
barrel  as  against  $9.50  to  $10  in  1861;  butter  16  to 
20  cents  per  pound  as  against  6  to  8  cents  in  1861; 
eggs  20  to  22  cents  per  dozen  as  against  8  to  10  cents 
in  1861.  Wages  of  unskilled  labor  in  the  meantime 
advanced  only  from  $1  per  day  for  the  season  of  1861 
to  $1.25  for  the  season  of  1863.  Prices  were  rising 
from  50  to  75  per  cent,  wages  less  than  half  that 
amount. 2     Well  might  the  editor  of  the  La  Crosse 

1  In  August,  1863  the  contractors  for  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Rail- 
road were  obliged  to  send  to  Canada  in  order  to  secure  a  full  supply 
of  labor.  The  road  paid  its  laborers  in  the  autumn  of  1863,  $1.37  J/^ 
per  day,  but  in  scrip  that  was  not  returnable  until  the  next  summer, 
and  it  had  to  be  exchanged  by  the  laborers  at  a  large  discount. 

2  These  are  the  wholesale  prices.  The  records  of  retail  prices  are  not 
sufficiently  complete  for  purposes  of  comparison.  Statistics  are  from 
the  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce  Reports  and  daily  market  quota- 
tions in  the  Milwaukee  press.  The  western  laborer  was  relatively  better 
ofT  than  his  brother  in  the  East,  for  while  the  wages  of  both  were  about 
the  same,  the  price  of  food  in  the  West  was  substantially  lower.  The 
advantage  is  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  closer  proximity  of  the  western 
laborer  to  free  lands. 


LABOR 


161 


Democrat  declare  near  the  close  of  1863,  "Mechanics 
and  day  laborers,  the  only  classes  who  are  seriously 
alTected  by  the  war,  have  need  to  exercise  close 
economy  and  the  nicest  calculation."^ 

The  years  1864  and  1865  witnessed  some  slight 
improvement  in  the  situation.  During  1864  Lincoln's 
calls  for  troops  followed  one  another  with  startling 
rapidity.  During  the  last  year  and  a  half  of  the  war 
Wisconsin  sent  to  the  front  as  large  a  number  of 
soldiers  as  during  the  previous  two  and  a  half  years. 
At  the  same  time  the  expanding  industries  of  the 
State  were  demanding  more  workmen,  and  from 
every  side  rose  the  complaint  of  the  scarcity  of  labor. 
Wages  mounted  rapidly  from  $1.25  per  day  for 
unskilled  labor  in  the  early  spring  of  1864  to  $1.75 
per  day  in  the  fall,  and  on  a  number  of  railroad 
enterprises  to  $2  per  day.  Prices  in  the  meantime 
were  soaring.  At  the  end  of  1864  flour  sold  at  whole- 
sale at  $7.75  to  $8.25  per  barrel;  potatoes  at  60  to  65 
cents  per  bushel;  mess  pork  at  $37  per  barrel;  butter 
at  32  to  40  cents  per  pound;  and  eggs  at  32  to  33 
cents  per  dozen.  The  advance  of  w^ages  was  again  less 
than  the  advance  of  prices,  but  the  rate  of  loss  had 
been  checked. ^ 

'  La  Crosse  Democrat,  Oct.  13,  1863. 

2  Wholesale  prices  during  the  month  of  July  varied  as  follows: 


July,  1861 
July,  1863 
July,  1864 
July,  1865 

11 


Flour 
per  bbl. 


$3  50-  $4  15 
$4  37-  $5  75 
$9  00-$10  00 
$5  00-  $6  25 


Potatoes 
per  bu. 


SO  15-$0  25 
$0  45-$0  60 
SO  40-$0  75 
$0  25-$0  60 


Mess  Pork 
per  bbl. 


$12  0(>-$13  00 

S40  0&-$42  00 
$30  00-S32  00 


Butter 
per  lb. 


$0  06-$0  08 
$0  10-SO  15 
$0  25-$0  33 
$0  10-$0  21 


Eggs 
per  doz. 


$0  06-$0  08 
$0  09-.S0  WA 
$0  12-SO  16 
$0  15-$0  20 


162  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

During  the  spring  of  1865,  when  it  became  evident 
that  peace  was  near  at  hand,  prices  rapidly  declined, 
reaching  their  lowest  point  in  midsummer.  Wages 
in  the  meantime  remained  stationary  and  the  war 
closed  with  labor  in  a  better  position  than  it  had 
enjoyed  for  several  years.  It  has  been  estimated  for 
the  North  as  a  whole  that  during  the  war  prices 
advanced  approximately  100  per  cent,  while  wages 
rose  only  50  to  60  per  cent.^  In  Wisconsin  labor 
fared  somewhat  better,  wages  having  advanced  during 
the  war  from  60  to  75  per  cent.  No  doubt  the  prox- 
imity of  free  land,  to  which  labor  could  readily  escape 
when  it  felt  itself  too  sorely  oppressed,  had  much  to 
do  with  this  happy  fortune.  However,  in  the  West  as 
well  as  the  East  labor  lost  in  real  wages,  a  misfortune 
offset  only  by  a  somewhat  larger  opportunity  for 
employment.  The  fruits  of  prosperity  had  passed  to 
the  merchant  jobbers,  who  piled  up  enormous  for- 
tunes, the  employers,  who  had  enjoyed  the  benefits 
of  a  high  war  tariff,  and  the  farmers,  who  had  realized 
upon  bountiful  crops  the  unusual  prices  that  the 
war  brought. 2 

The  unequal  advance  of  wages  and  prices  during 
the  war,  to  which  unskilled  labor  could  offer  but 
feeble  resistance,  led  skilled  labor  for  the  first  time 
in  the  history  of  the  State  to  organize  generally  into 
trade    unions.^       The    movement    found    expression 

*  Fite,  Social  and  Industrial  Conditions,  chap.  7.  I  have  made  liberal 
use  of  this  valuable  work. 

2  J.  R.  Commons,  Historij  of  the  American  Labor  Movement,  Ms. 

'  Some  scattering  trade  unions  had  been  organized  prior  to  the  war, 
among  them  the  Milwaukee  Typographical  Union  No.  23  in  1852  or 
1853,  the  Madison  Typographical  Union  No.  25  in  1857,  the  Milwau- 
kee Cigarmakers'  Union  No.  25  in  1860,  and  the  Milwaukee  German 


LABOR  163 

chiefly  in  Milwaukee,  where  the  largest  number  of 
wage  earners  was  concentrated.  Here  during  the 
troubled  years  between  1863  and  1865  the  brick- 
layers and  masons,  carpenters  and  joiners,  machinists 
and  blacksmiths,  iron  molders,  custom  tailors,  and 
sailors  formed  protective  organizations,  while  the 
ship  carpenters  and  caulkers,  organized  in  1861,  and 
the  printers,  and  the  cigar-makers,  organized  before 
the  war,  discarded  their  former  peaceful  activities, 
and  adopted  more  vigorous  tactics.^ 

Strikes,  hitherto  almost  unknown  in  the  State,  now 
became  a  common  mode  of  forcing  up  wages.  The 
successful  organization  of  a  trade  union  was  usually 
the  signal  for  a  strike  shortly  after.  Ordinarily  these 
labor  contests,  recorded  only  in  the  vague  recollec- 
tions of  the  participants,  were  in  themselves  insignif- 
icant, involving  but  a  single  shop  or  the  crew  of  a 
single  ship,  yet  altogether  they  offer  an  indication 
of  the  social  unrest  that  the  high  prices  of  the  war 
had  produced. 2  A  fair  proportion  of  the  total  number 

Custom  Tailors'   Union  in   1860.     These  were,   however,   during  their 
early  existence  more  social  than  militant  in  character. 

1  Other  trade  unions  organized  in  the  State  during  the  years  from 
1863  to  1865  were  the  Blacksmiths'  and  Machinists'  at  Watertown,  the 
Moulders'  in  Racine,  the  Carpenters'  and  Joiners'  in  Madison,  the  Cus- 
tom Shoemakers'  in  La  Crosse,  Madison,  and  Portage,  the  Custom  Tail- 
ors' in  Madison,  and  local  divisions  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive 
Engineers  at  Racine  and  Portage.  No  doubt  many  others  were  organ- 
ized in  various  parts  of  the  State,  of  which,  however,  no  record  seems 
to  have  been  preserved.  The  labor  movement  in  Wisconsin  during  this 
period  has  been  almost  entirely  ignored  in  contemporary  records.  A 
large  portion  of  the  data  presented  in  this  chapter  has  been  gleaned 
from  personal  interviews  with  men  who  were  active  in  the  movement. 

2  Of  sufficient  importance  during  1864  and  1865  to  receive  newspaper 
mention  were  the  strikes  for  higher  wages  of  the  printers,  bricklayers  and 
masons,  iron  molders,  and  sailors  in  Milwaukee,  the  sax^-mill  operatives  in 
Oshkosh,  and  the  custom  shoemakers  in  La  Crosse,  Madison,  and  Portage. 


164  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

was  either  wholly  or  partially  successful,  for  capital 
was  reaping  profits  so  large  that  it  could  better 
afford  to  yield  than  to  fight.  Where  the  employer, 
however,  ofTered  determined  resistance,  they  uni- 
formly failed;  it  was  an  axiom  that  a  strike  lasting 
longer  than  three  days  was  lost.  As  a  whole  it  is 
perhaps  safe  to  say  that  trade  unions  were  too  weak 
and  inexperienced  in  this  frontier  community  to  be 
able  materially  to  affect  wages;  while  during  the  war 
skilled  labor  fared  no  better,  and  in  many  cases 
actually  worse,  than  unskilled  labor. 

In  addition  to  the  disparity  in  the  advance  of  wages 
and  prices,  labor  nursed  during  this  period  a  number 
of  other  grievances.  Prominent  among  these  was 
irregularity  of  pay,^  an  evil  which  had  grown  to  some 
proportions  in  the  State  as  a  result  of  the  hard  times 
following  the  panic  of  1857.  It  was  a  typical  frontier 
difficulty,  for  the  frontier  is  by  definition  a  region  of 
inadequate  capital.  The  railroads  were,  as  might 
be  expected,  particularly  delinquent,  since  with  them 
scarcity  of  capital  was  chronic.  In  other  industries 
labor  secured  deliverance  from  this  evil  during  the 
prosperous  years  of  the  war,  but  railroad  employees 
were  still  fighting  it  during  the  decade  of  the  seven- 
ties.^ 

'  In  1861  Assemblyman  J.  L.  Fobes  introduced  into  the  legislature  a 
bill  providing  for  the  collection  of  wages  of  labor.  The  subject  aroused 
considerable  interest  in  Milwaukee,  where  a  mass  meeting  of  mechanics 
and  laborers  was  held  on  Mar.  11,  1861  to  petition  the  legislature  thus 
to  strengthen  the  lien  law.    No  action  was  secured,  however. 

2  Early  in  1865  the  blacksmiths  and  carpenters  in  the  railroad  shops 
of  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railroad,  and  in  1867  the  laborers  on  the 
Tomah  &  St.  Croix  Railroad  were  on  strike  for  back  pay.  As  late  as 
1872  there  were  numerous  strikes  for  the  same  reason  on  railroads  under 
construction  in   northern  Wisconsin.     On  the  Wisconsin   Central   Rail- 


LABOR  165 

Similar  grievances  were  store  pay  and  scrip  pay, 
inheritances  likewise  of  a  previous  period  of  hard 
times. 1  The  employer  who  paid  his  labor  in  store 
orders  was  usually  himself  interested  in  some  way  in 
the  concern  upon  which  the  orders  were  given,  and 
realized  thus  a  profit  not  only  on  the  production, 
but  also  on  the  consumption,  of  his  workmen.  The 
laborers,  however,  who  purchased  with  store  orders, 
saw  in  them  only  another  mode  of  reducing  wages, 
for  not  only  did  the  storekeeper  refuse  to  sell  them 
such  standard  commodities  as  flour  and  meat,  but 
on  all  others  either  gave  inferior  goods  or  charged 
higher  prices.  The  man  who  "went  for  his  pay  with 
a  bag"  in  every  case  secured  less  for  his  money  than 
his  cash-paying  neighbor. - 

The  amount  of  store  orders  which  workmen  were 
required  to  accept  in  lieu  of  wages  varied  with  indi- 
vidual trades  and  employers.  The  coopers  were 
nearly  always  paid  in  cash,  for  the  millers  and  packers 
who  employed  them  were  in  turn  able  to  command 

road  near  Stevens  Point  the  laborers  engaged  in  a  rather  serious  riot 
in  1872,  tearing  up  track  and  seizing  a  locomotive  and  twenty-five  cars 
which  they  proposed  to  hold  until  their  back  pay  was  turned  over  to  them. 

^The  following,  from  an  editorial  of  Mark  M.  Pomeroy  in  the  La- 
Crosse  Democrat  of  Sept.  8,  1863,  offers  an  indication  of  the  nature  of 
the  problem  in  the  smaller  towns:  "The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  wages, 
and  he  is  a  foolish  man  to  work  if  he  does  not  receive  them — not  in  cats, 
dogs,  old  wagon  tires,  and  water-melon  rinds,  but  in  cash  or  its  full 
equivalent — is  foolish  to  work  and  live  from  week  to  week  on  promises 
made  to  the  ear,  but  broken  to  the  heart.  We  hope  the  day  will  come 
when  mechanics  will  altogether  refuse  to  work  for  anything  but  cash  in 
hand  promptly  paid."  M.  M.  Pomeroy  later  became  a  prominent  editor 
and  Greenback  politician  in  the  state  of  New  York,  being  at  one  time  an 
aspirant  for  the  presidential  nomination  of  the  Greenback  Labor  party. 

2  Shrewd  buyers  sometimes  managed  to  conceal  from  the  storekeeper 
the  fact  that  they  intended  to  pay  in  store  orders,  but  the  trick  did  not 
often  succeed. 


166  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

cash.  In  some  of  the  building  trades,  on  the  other 
hand,  wage  earners  received  their  entire  wages  in 
cash  only  as  a  special  grace  on  occasions  like  Thanks- 
giving, Christmas,  and  Independence  Day. 

Scrip  pay  was  a  special  affliction  of  railroad  labor. 
The  scrip  was  usually  issued  payable  six  months  or 
more  after  date,  and  the  unfortunate  laborer  who  was 
under  the  necessity  of  immediately  converting  his 
wages  into  cash,  could  do  so  only  at  a  large  discount. 
Happily  in  most  trades  labor  succeeded  during  the 
prosperous  years  which  followed  1863,  when  money 
was  plentiful  and  profits  of  employers  were  large, 
in  shaking  off  these  evils. 

The  entrance  of  women  into  hitherto  unoccupied 
fields  gave  much  concern  to  organized  labor  and  in 
particular  to  the  printers  of  the  State.  The  printing 
trade  early  felt  a  scarcity  of  labor,  for  the  members 
of  that  craft  responded  with  more  than  usual  zeal 
to  the  calls  for  volunteers.^  Soon  after  the  war  began 
various  State  exchanges  were  noticing  with  favor  the 
increasing  employment  of  women  as  compositors. 
Women  were  admirably  suited  to  enter  the  occupa- 
tion, for  not  only  could  they  quickly  become  as 
skillful  as  men,  but  they  were  satisfied  with  little 
more  than  half  the  wages  men  demanded.  In  1863 
Milwaukee  Typographical  Union  No.  23  adopted 
resolutions  protesting  against  the  introduction  of 
female  compositors  into  the  office  of  the  Milwaukee 
Sentinel,  and,  when  the  proprietors  of  that  paper 
refused  to  recede,  declared  a  strike.   The  controversy 

*  It  was  estimated  in  1865  that  the  printing  offices  of  the  State  furnished 
not  less  than  a  regiment  of  men  to  the  Union  cause.  In  1864  Milwaukee 
Typographical  Union  No.  23  was  obliged  to  disband  because  of  the  large 
number  of  its  members  who  had  enlisted. 


LABOR  167 

aroused  wide  comment  over  the  State,  the  press 
unanimously  accepting  the  SentineVs  defense  that  its 
course  was  calculated  solely  to  give  employment 
to  women  left  dependent  by  the  war.^  The  strike  was 
lost,  and  women  continued  during  the  war  to  occupy 
a  prominent  place  in  the  printing  offices  of  the  State. 

As  clerks  women  invaded  a  field  hitherto  left  almost 
exclusively  to  men.  "Within  the  past  few  years," 
declared  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel  of  Mar.  31,  1868, 
"there  has  been  a  decided  and  strong  movement 
towards  the  employment  of  women  as  clerks  in  dry 
goods  and  fancy  stores  *  *  *.  The  Chicago  Republican 
lately  said  that  every  young  man  who  sold  dry  goods, 
boots,  or  shoes,  hats  and  caps,  etc.,  behind  a  counter 
ought  to  be  ashamed  of  himself.  This  is  somewhat 
stronger  than  we  are  disposed  to  put  the  case;  but 
it  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction."  In  the  factories 
of  the  State,  particularly  the  woodenware,  shingle, 
and  match  factories  of  the  Fox  River  Valley,  women 
likewise  found  increasing  opportunities  for  employ- 
ment during  the  war. 

Wages  of  women  were  pitifully  inadequate,  varying 
during  the  years  of  highest  prices  from  $3  to  $5  per 
week.  Early  in  1864  a  communication  signed  "Many 
Milwaukee  Tailoresses"  appeared  in  the  Milwaukee 
Sentinel,  in  which  these  unfortunate  sweatshop  toilers 
set  their  grievances  before  the  public.  The  complaint 
closed,  "Tailoresses  who  have  worked  at  their  trade 

1  The  attitude  of  the  press  is  well  reflected  in  the  following  extract 
from  the  Dodge  County  Citizen  of  Jan.  15,  1863,  which  appeared  in  the 
Sentinel  on  January  16.  "A  few  weeks  ago,  the  Printers'  Union  (at  the 
Sentinel)  struck  for  higher  wages,  and  the  employers,  like  honorable 
men,  promptly  complied.  But  now  the  Union  has  'struck'  women — a 
few  women  who  are  nobly  bearing  the  grievances  of  our  national  troubles; 
and  the  employers,  like  honorable  men,  refused  to  strike  the  women  too." 


168  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

for  years,  and  who  own  first  class  sewing  machines, 
can  only  make  twelve  common  vests  per  week,  or 
twelve  pairs  of  common  pants.  *  *  *  Their  day  may 
commence  at  7  A.  M.,  but  it  can  not  close  at  6  P.  M. 
It  must  continue  on  not  unfrequently  till  the  'wee 
sma'  hours.  *  *  *  The  maximum  of  a  week's  earnings 
then  is:  for  one  dozen  vests,  $3;  for  a  like  number 
of  the  ordinary  run  of  winter  pants,  the  same  sum — 
the  higher  priced  pants  are  only  occasionally  ob- 
tainable, and  of  these  only  eight  pairs  netting  $3 
per  week  can  be  made  by  one  person.  Many  of  us 
have  made  twelve  pairs  of  lined  pants  this  winter 
for  $2.64."^  In  Madison  the  seamstresses  faced  a 
similar  situation,  and  found  it  necessary  in  the  spring 
of  1864  to  organize  in  order  to  secure  living  wages. 
In  1867  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel  estimated  that  4,000 
girls  and  young  women  were  employed  in  the  various 
shops  and  manufacturing  establishments  of  the  city, 
whose  wages  ranged  "from  three  to  twelve  dollars 
a  week — the  average  being  probably  five  dollars.  How 
do  they  live  on  such  a  pittance?  *  *  *  Board  alone  can 
hardly  be  had  for  less  than  five  dollars  a  week."^ 

Cheap  labor  constituted  a  menace  to  a  number  of 
trades,  particularly  to  the  ship  carpenters  of  the  lake 
ports  and  the  Irish  deck  hands  on  the  Mississippi 
steamboats.  The  ship  carpenters,  whose  busy  season 
came  during  the  winter  months  when  navigation 
was  closed,  annually  found  their  trade  invaded  by 
a  horde  of  hungry  house  carpenters,  thrown  out  of 
employment  by  the  suspension  of  building  operations. 
The  intruders  were  ready  to  work  for  anything  they 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  16,  1864. 

2  Ibid.,  Aug.  3,  1867. 


LABOR  169 

could  get,  forcing  the  ship  carpenters  in  self-defense 
to  adopt  the  most  stringent  regulations  against  non- 
union labor.  In  the  winter  of  1861-62  the  Milwaukee 
Society  of  Carpenters  and  Caulkers'  fought  a  long, 
though  unsuccessful,  strike  against  the  despised 
"barn-door  joiners,"^  and  throughout  the  period  of  the 
war  the  issue  of  the  closed  shop  was  a  source  of  con- 
stant conflict  with  them. 

Up  to  the  close  of  the  war  the  deck  hands  on  the 
Mississippi  steamboats  were  almost  entirely  Irish. 
Negroes  were  forbidden  to  lay  hands  upon  freight, 
and  any  effort  to  employ  them  was  promptly  met  by 
throwing  the  obnoxious  blacks  overboard.  The 
emancipation  of  the  slaves,  however,  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  end,  for  it  threw  upon  the  market  a  mass 
of  labor  admirably  adapted  by  nature  to  the  irre- 
sponsible life  of  the  roustabout.  The  first  evidence  of  a 
change  on  the  upper  Mississippi  occurred  in  the  summer 
of  1866  when  the  Northwestern  Union  Packet  Company 
of  La  Crosse,^  whose  deck  hands  were  striking  for  higher 
wages,  brought  in  from  Cincinnati  300  to  400  negroes  in 
their  places.  Thenceforth  the  substitution  of  black 
for  white  rousters  was  rapid,  accompanied  by  a  swift 
decline  in  wages,  and  before  1870  negroes  were  in  al- 
most complete  possession  of  the  trade."* 

1  The  Milwaukee  Ship  Carpenters'  and  Caulkers'  Union  was  organized 
in  the  winter  of  1861  as  a  branch  of  an  organization  that  seems  to  have 
embraced  the  Great  Lakes. 

2  The  strike  held  out  for  over  a  month,  an  unusual  duration  for  a 
labor  contest  at  this  time. 

^The  Northwestern  Union  Packet  Company  controlled  the  steam- 
packet  business  on  the  upper  Mississippi  in  1866. 

.  "  In  the  Milwaukee  Coopers'  strike  of  1872  the  millers  were  reported 
to  be  contemplating  bringing  in  Chinese  strike  breakers.  It  is  doubt- 
ful, however,  whether  the  plan  was  ever  seriously  considered. 


170  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

The  introduction  of  machinery  seriously  affected 
several  trades  in  the  State  during  the  war,  though 
it  led  to  no  such  direct  clashes  with  labor  as  occurred 
in  the  East.  The  shoemakers  were  hardest  hit.  A 
series  of  inventions,  stimulated  by  the  war  and  the 
huge  demands  of  the  Federal  government  for  shoes  for 
its  armies,  transformed  the  industry  within  a  period 
of  ten  or  fifteen  years,  substituting  machinery  for  the 
old-time  skill  of  the  journeyman.^  By  the  end  of  the 
war  the  "Ancient  and  Honorable  Mysterie  of  Cord- 
wainers"  was  well  on  its  way  to  the  factory  system. ^ 
The  Milwaukee  Sentinel  of  April  15,  1869  reports  an 
interview  with  the  foreman  of  Bradley  &  Metcalf's 
boot  and  shoe  manufacturing  establishment,  already 
at  that  time  one  of  the  largest  in  the  Northwest, 
which  illustrates  the  changes  going  on.  "The  simple 
fact  proved  to  be  that  the  division  of  labor — one 
single  and  simple  operation  being  assigned  to  each 
class  of  workmen — and  the  introduction  of  machinery, 

^  The  inventions  which  seriously  affected  the  shoemakers  began  with 
the  introduction  of  the  power  pegging  machine  at  Lynn  and  Philadel- 
phia in  1857.  In  1862  the  McKay  sole  sewing  machine  was  invented, 
which  in  one  hour  accomplished  the  work  of  a  journeyman  in  eighty, 
and  following  that  came  such  a  flood  of  others  as  induced  the  Mas- 
sachusetts commissioner  of  labor  in  1871  to  remark  that  invention  seemed 
to  be  centering  about  the  shoemaking  industry.  See  The  Knights  of  St. 
Crispin,  1867-1874,  University  of  Wisconsin,  Bulletin,  No.  355  (Madi- 
son, 1910). 

2  An  interesting  transition  in  the  evolution  of  the  factory  system  in  the 
boot  and  shoe  industry  was  represented  in  Milwaukee  during  the  later 
sixties  by  an  institution  familiarly  known  as  "Bradley's  Barn."  To 
this  frame  building,  located  in  the  Third  Ward,  approximately  a  hundred 
of  Bradley  &  Metcalf's  workmen  brought  and  "worked  up"  each  week 
the  materials  handed  out  to  them  at  the  central  warehouse.  They  owned 
their  own  simple  tools  and  devices  and  paid  monthly  a  stipulated  rent 
for  the  privilege  of  a  working  place.  A  similar  institution,  in  which  the 
employees  of  Bradley  &  Metcalf  and  Atkins,  Steele  &  White  were  at 
work,  was  said  to  have  been  located  near  Fourth  and  Clybourne  streets. 


LABOR  171 

had  enabled  the  manufacturers  to  substitute  un- 
skilled for  skilled  labor.  Mr.  Shaw  remarked  that  he 
could  take  an  unskilled  laborer  from  the  street  and 
in  two  days'  time  teach  him  to  do  some  portions 
of  the  work  as  well  as  a  man  who  had  spent  years  in 
learning  the  shoemaker's  trade.  And  he  added  further 
that  of  the  450  men  now  employed  in  the  establish- 
ment, perhaps  not  more  than  ten  were  sufficiently 
skilled  to  have  been  of  any  service  ten  or  fifteen  years 
ago."  To  meet  this  unhappy  plight  and  more  par- 
ticularly to  protect  the  vestiges  of  skill  that  machinery 
still  left  them  from  the  encroachments  of  "green 
hands,"  there  was  initiated  in  1867  what  was  destined 
to  become  the  greatest  labor  organization  known  up 
to  this  time  to  the  American  labor  movement. 

The  association  of  the  Knights  of  St.  Crispin  was 
born  in  the  spring  of  1867  in  the  metropolis  of  Wis- 
consin. Thither  had  come  at  the  close  of  the  Civil 
War  Newell  Daniels,  an  intelligent  Massachusetts 
boot-treer,  who,  appreciating  the  condition  of  his 
trade,  had  planned  before  his  removal  to  the  West 
to  organize  a  national  union  of  boot-treers.  Early 
in  1867  he  succeeded  in  interesting  six  of  his  fellow- 
craftsmen  in  a  new  plan  to  organize  not  only  the 
boot-treers  but  all  the  workers  of  the  boot  and  shoe 
industry  into  a  great  national  industrial  union.  A 
constitution  and  a  ritual  were  drafted;  one  of  the 
charter  members,  F.  W.  Wallace,  proposed  for  the 
title  of  the  organization  the  picturesque  "Knights  of 
St.  Crispin,"  in  honor  of  the  shoemakers'  patron 
saint,  and  on  Mar.  1,  1867  the  order  was  launched. 
Daniels  induced  the  German  Custom  Shoemakers' 
Union  of  Milwaukee  to  adopt  his  plan  and  join  the 


172  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

order  as  Lodge  No.  2,  after  which,  with  Milwaukee 
as  a  base,  he  began  his  invasion  of  the  shoemaking 
centers  of  the  East.^  His  success  was  almost  instan- 
taneous. The  form  of  organization  well  suited  the 
needs  of  the  industry;  its  cardinal  principle,  refusal 
to  teach  green  hands,  was  recognized  as  the  only 
salvation  of  the  craft,^  and  before  the  end  of  the 
decade  its  membership  had  jumped  to  approximately 
50,000.  In  Wisconsin  by  the  end  of  1870  eleven  new 
lodges  had  been  organized,  at  Racine,  Waukesha, 
Janesville,  Kenosha,  Watertown,  Fond  du  Lac, 
Green  Bay,  Sheboygan,  La  Crosse,  Portage,  and 
Oshkosh.^ 

The  decline  of  the  organization  was  as  sudden  as 
its  rise.  Its  strikes,  which  at  first  were  uniformly 
successful,  after  1871  met  with  a  number  of  crushing 
defeats,  and  by  the  end  of  1872  the  order  was  on  the 
verge  of  dissolution.  The  only  Wisconsin  lodge  that 
still  sent  a  delegate  to  the  national  convention  in 
that  year  was  the  original  Lodge  No.  1,  and  even 
this  was  obliged  to  disband  during  the  panic  of  1873. 

In  the  coopering  industry  in  Wisconsin  machine- 
made  staves  for  flour  barrels  first  came  into  general 

'  The  German  Custom  Shoemakers'  Union  appears  to  have  been  or- 
ganized some  time  after  the  close  of  the  war.  The  custom  shoemakers 
in  Milwaukee  were  almost  all  German,  the  factory  workers  who  con- 
stituted Lodge  No.  1  were  predominantly  Irish.  The  data  relating  to 
the  beginnings  of  the  order  I  have  secured  from  Daniels'  own  account  in 
the  monthly  Journal  of  the  K.  0.  S.  C,  January,  1873.  For  a  detailed 
account  of  the  later  history  of  the  Knights  of  St.  Crispin  see  Univer- 
sity of  Wisconsin,  Bulletin,  No.  355. 

2  It  was  hoped  that  by  controlling  the  skilled  operations  which  ma- 
chinery had  not  yet  displaced,  the  members  of  the  craft  might  still  re- 
tain possession  of  the  industry. 

'  Of  these,  however,  four  (at  Waukesha,  Kenosha,  Sheboygan,  and 
Oshkosh)  had  by  the  end  of  1872  already  been  disbanded. 


LABOR  173 

use  during  the  years  just  preceding  the  war.  With 
their  introduction  the  most  difficult  and  skilled  por- 
tion of  the  slack-barrel  cooper's  art  was  displaced, 
and  there  remained  to  the  trade  only  the  comparative- 
ly simple  task  of  "setting  up."  The  innovation 
appears  not  to  have  been  resisted,  however,  by  the 
coopers  of  Wisconsin,  though  indirectly  it  led  to  much 
trouble.  The  slack-barrel  cooper's  trade  had  at  its 
best  been  a  highly  seasonal  occupation,  for  barrels 
were  too  bulky  to  be  stored,  and  flour,  the  one 
product  that  made  use  of  slack  barrels,  was  shipped 
only  during  a  few  months  in  the  spring  and  the  fall 
of  the  year.^  Machinery  greatly  accentuated  the  evil, 
for  now  the  preparation  of  the  stock  was  wholly  re- 
moved from  the  trade.  The  industry  became  a 
succession  of  short  periods  of  rush  and  long  periods  of 
idleness.  Each  rush  was  the  signal  for  a  strike  for 
increased  wages,  the  Milwaukee  coopers  succeeding 
at  one  time  during  the  later  sixties  in  forcing  their 
piecework  rate  as  high  as  25  cents  per  barrel.  The 
moment  the  rush  was  over  the  millers  cut  rates  to 
their  former  level,  often  as  low  as  7  or  8  cents.-    The 

1  Before  the  war,  millers  in  Milwaukee  generally  bought  their  barrels 
from  small  coopering  establishments  scattered  over  the  city.  However, 
the  high  war  taxes  on  the  sale  of  industrial  products  (in  the  case  of  flour 
barrels  this  added  3  per  cent  to  purchase  price),  led  most  of  the  Mil- 
waukee millers  to  establish  cooper  shops  as  departments  of  their  busi- 
ness. Organization  of  labor  in  these  larger  shops  was  more  readily 
accomplished  than  had  previously  been  possible. 

2  In  1868,  after  an  unsuccessful  strike  of  the  slack-barrel  coopers  to  in- 
crease their  piecework  rates  from  15  and  20  cents  for  flat  and  round  hooped 
barrels  respectively  to  20  and  25  cents,  a  number  of  the  millers  agreed 
to  a  contract  system  by  which  the  coopers  should  be  given  employ- 
ment the  year  round  at  123^  cents  per  barrel.  The  contract  proved 
unsatisfactory  to  both  parties,  the  millers  finding  it  almost  impossible  to 
secure  storage  room  for  the  barrels  made  during  the  slack  season  and 
the  coopers  revolting  at  the  low  prices  when  the  rush  season  approached 


174  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

cooper  trade  in  Milwaukee,  where  flour  milling  centered, 
became  during  the  period  of  the  later  sixties  and  early 
seventies  the  most  unstable  and  turbulent  in  the  city.^ 
Advancing  prices  led,  as  we  have  seen,  on  the  one 
hand  to  organized  efforts  to  force  up  wages;  on  the 
other  they  led  to  cooperative  enterprises  to  reduce 
cost  of  living.  In  the  East,  where  trade  unionism  was 
vigorous,  the  movement  toward  distributive  cooper- 
ation was  marked;  in  Wisconsin  it  was  insignificant. 
In  Milwaukee  Joseph  Bennett,  an  eloquent  English 
member  of  the  Milwaukee  Machinists'  and  Black- 
smiths' Union,  who  was  familiar  with  the  successful 
Rochdale  system  in  his  mother  country,  preached 
the  principles  of  cooperation  to  his  fellow-craftsmen 
so  successfully  that  in  1865  the  Union  opened  a 
cooperative  grocery  store,  which  aroused  much  fav- 
orable interest.  It  was  conducted  on  too  small  a 
scale,  however,  to  succeed,  refusing  to  make  deliveries 
and  opening  only  evenings  when  the  committee  of 
the  Union  could  take  charge.  After  six  months  the 
members  tired  of  the  experiment  and  it  was  abandoned. ^ 

I  have  been  told  that  a  similar  plan  was  tried  previously,  and  again  after 
1868,  but  was  never  entirely  successful. 

1  The  first  trade  union  of  slack  barrel  coopers  permanent  enough  to 
be  termed  such  was  organized  in  Milwaukee  in  1867.  During  the  suc- 
ceeding three  years  it  led  a  somewhat  precarious  existence,  the  men 
striking  frequently  and  not  always  with  success.  Late  in  1870  or  early 
in  1871  it  joined  the  International  Coopers'  Union  (organized  May  6, 
1870)  as  No.  1  Wisconsin.  In  1872,  after  a  prolonged  strike  which 
ended  disastrously,  it  disbanded,  but  was  reorganized  in  June  of  the 
next  year.  Five  other  coopers'  unions  were  organized  in  Wisconsin  dur- 
ing 1871,  at  W^atertown,  Janesville,  Appleton,  Racine,  and  the  tight- 
barrel  coopers  of  Milwaukee. 

2  The  enterprising  Bay  View  Lodge  of  the  Sons  of  Vulcan,  organized 
in  1869,  made  provision  in  its  act  of  incorporation  (1871)  for  a  cooper- 
ative store,  but  I  have  found  no  evidence  that  such  a  store  was  actually 
undertaken. 


LABOR  175 

Productive  cooperation  was  frequently  tried  in  the 
State,  both  during  and  after  the  period  of  rapidly 
rising  prices.^  The  first  attempt  came  early  in  1862, 
when  nine  members  of  the  Ship  Carpenters'  and 
Caulkers'  Union  of  Milwaukee,  disheartened  by 
the  constant  bickering  of  their  organization  over  the 
question  of  nonunion  labor,  withdrew  during  the 
strike  of  1861-62  and  formed  a  cooperative  ship- 
building association  under  the  title  Allan,  McClellan 
&  Company.  Beginning  with  limited  capital,  they 
contented  themselves  at  first  with  jobs  of  repairing, 
applying  only  the  days  when  such  work  was  not  to 
be  had  to  the  construction  of  a  new  ship.  They 
prospered  from  the  beginning  but,  as  was  so  often 
the  case  with  successful  cooperative  enterprises  at 
that  time,  the  more  energetic  among  them  bought 
out  the  others  and  thereafter  conducted  the  business 
on  a  private  basis.-  The  Union  in  the  meantime  was 
nearly  wrecked,  for  the  cooperators  who  had  with- 
drawn were  the  best  workmen  and  most  intelligent 
leaders  in  the  organization. 

Early  in  1863  the  printers  of  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel, 
who  were  striking  against  the  employment  of  women 
as  compositors,  attempted,  when  they  realized  that 
the  strike  was  about  to  fail,  to  establish  a  paper  of 

1  In  the  East  productive  cooperation  as  a  movement  came  at  the  close 
of  the  war.  It  represented  the  effort  of  organized  labor  to  check  falling 
wages  and  unemployment.  In  Wisconsin  the  movement  did  not  attain 
importance  until  near  the  close  of  the  decade,  for  hard  times  did  not 
reach  the  State  until  that  time.  The  Milwaukee  instances  which  oc- 
curred during  the  war  may  be  regarded  as  exceptions  to  the  general  rule 
that  productive  cooperation  is  a  movement  accompanying  falling  wages 
and  unemployment. 

2  The  present  Milwaukee  Dry  Dock  Company  on  Jones  Island  is  the 
successor  of  Allan,  McClellan  &  Co. 


176  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

their  own.^  Their  capital,  however,  was  insufficient, 
a  difficulty  that  spelled  defeat  for  many  a  hurriedly 
launched  cooperative  enterprise,  and  after  a  struggle 
of  seventeen  days  they  were  forced  to  suspend. ^ 

Productive  cooperation  was  stimulated  toward  the 
close  of  the  decade  by  a  temporary  depression  of 
business  in  the  State.  In  Milwaukee  two  attempts 
were  made,  one  by  the  journeymen  cigar-makers,  the 
other  by  the  journeymen  cabinetmakers  of  the  city. 
That  of  the  cigar-makers,  originating  in  a  strike,  was 
abandoned  after  a  year  and  a  half  of  fair  progress 
because  of  mutual  misunderstanding  among  the 
members.^  That  of  the  cabinetmakers  was  more 
successful.  The  twelve  members  got  on  well  together, 
they  were  wise  in  drawing  to  their  aid  as  president 
and  treasurer  a  well-known  business  man  of  Mil- 
waukee, and  when  after  two  years  they  decided  to 
sell  out  they  realized  twice  the  amount  of  their 
original  investment.^ 

In  1869  twenty-one  German  Knights  of  St.  Crispin 
in  Milwaukee  became  infected  with  the  wave  of 
enthusiasm  for  cooperation  which  was  sweeping  over 

1  Three  of  the  early  issues  of  this  interesting  paper  (the  Milwaukee 
Daily  Union)  are  in  the  possession  of  George  Richardson  of  Milwau- 
kee, one  of  the  leaders  in  the  enterprise,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for 
courteous  assistance. 

2  The  Iron  Moulders'  Union  in  Milwaukee  at  the  close  of  the  war  was 
much  interested  in  the  discussion  of  productive  cooperation,  but  noth- 
ing definite  was  attempted. 

3  The  moving  spirit  in  this  Cooperative  Cigar  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany was  Henry  Lecher,  still  a  resident  of  Milwaukee,  to  whom  I  am 
indebted  for  courteous  assistance. 

"This  cooperative  company,  known  as  the  Milwaukee  Furniture 
Manufacturing  Association,  occupied  itself  chiefiy  in  the  manufacture 
of  sashes,  doors,  and  blinds.  Its  first  president  was  William  Frank- 
furth,  a  prominent  hardware  merchant  of  the  city.  The  company  to 
which  it  sold  out  professed  also  to  be  cooperative,  but  was  not. 


LABOR  177 

the  national  order  and  organized  the  Milwaukee  Boot 
and  Shoe  Manufacturing  Association.  They  began 
with  high  hopes  of  success,  for  they  had  gathered 
sufficient  capital  to  be  able  to  purchase  a  complete 
set  of  machinery,  1  and  they  were  the  most  skilled 
workers  in  their  craft.  They  failed,  however,  after 
a  discouraging  struggle  of  two  and  a  half  years. 
Lack  of  competent  management  and  a  hopeless 
attempt  to  compete  with  factory  products  when  cus- 
tom orders  failed  were  responsible  for  their  defeat.'^ 
On  the  whole  it  may  be  said  of  productive  cooper- 
ation in  Wisconsin  that  it  proved  a  failure.  Origi- 
nating usually  in  a  strike,^  organization  was  hurried, 
due  regard  was  not  paid  to  the  important  matter 
of  selecting  members  who  were  both  skillful  and 
compatible,  and  above  all  capital  was  insufficient 
and  management  usually  incompetent.  When  success 
was  attained  productive  cooperation  failed  neverthe- 
less in  the  sense  that  it  soon  ceased  to  be  cooperative. 
Whether  failure  or  success  followed,  it  always  injured 
the  trade  union  from  which  the  movement  sprang, 

1  stock  was  limited  to  $75,000  at  $50  per  share.  The  association  was 
reported  to  have  started  out  with  $15,000,  but  this  was  an  exaggeration. 

''Other  instances  of  cooperation  in  Milwaukee  during  this  period 
were  the  Carpenters'  &  Joiners'  Building  Association,  incorporated  in 
1866,  the  Badger  State  Building  Asisociation,  and  the  Carpenters'  & 
Housebuilders'  Cooperative  Company  incorporated  in  1867.  The  Ger- 
man Tailors'  Union,  incorporated  in  1871,  provided  in  its  articles  for 
cooperation,  but  I  have  found  no  evidence  that  such  was  ever  attempted. 

'  Cooperation  was  in  some  instances  purely  a  strike  measure,  a  club 
over  the  heads  of  refractory  employers.  Thus  the  constitution  of  the 
Milwaukee  Masons'  and  Bricklayers'  Union  provided,  "In  the  event  a 
Strike  shall  be  declared,  and  continue  for  the  space  of  one  week,  the 
Board  of  Trustees  and  such  additional  Members  as  the  Board  demands, 
shall  constitute  the  Board  of  Building  Commissioners,  and  they  shall 
figure  on  work,  enter  into  contracts,  and  furnish  bond  for  the  comple- 
tion of  such  work  as  they  may  obtain." 

12 


178  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

for  it  drew  away  the  most  active  and  enterprising 
members  of  the  craft. ^ 

The  eight-hour  philosophy  of  Ira  Steward  found 
many  ardent  advocates  in  Wisconsin  toward  the 
close  of  the  war.  The  demand  was  based  not  on  actual 
conditions,  as  was  the  case  in  the  East  where  business 
depression  and  the  return  of  the  soldiers  brought  on 
excessive  unemployment,  but  on  speculative  abstrac- 
tions. It  was  the  echo,  merely,  of  a  real  movement 
in  the  great  industrial  centers  of  the  North.  In  Wis- 
consin the  supporters  of  the  shorter  day  urged  the 
usual  humanitarian  considerations;  they  declared 
themselves  willing  to  submit  to  proportionate  wage 
reductions,-  confident  that  the  withdrawal  of  so  large 
a  supply  of  labor  power  from  the  market  would  create 
a  demand  that  would  quickly  force  wages  back  to 
their  former  level.  The  opposition  held  up  the  danger 
of  State  interference  in  the  relations  between  labor 
and  capital;  predicted  disastrous  results  to  the  infant 

^  Trade  unions  contemplating  cooperation  found  it  desirable,  in  order 
to  acquire  legal  standing,  to  incorporate  under  the  laws  of  the  State. 
They  hoped  also  to  secure  thereby  protection  for  their  funds  against 
dishonest  officers.  In  the  East  employers  vigorously  resisted  attempts 
of  organized  labor  to  secure  legal  recognition.  In  Wisconsin  capital 
was  quite  indifferent,  largely,  no  doubt,  because  organized  labor  here 
was  too  weak  to  constitute  a  menace.  In  1866  the  Milwaukee  Masons'  and 
Bricklayers'  Union,  in  1867  the  Madison  Masons' and  Bricklayers'  Union, 
in  1868  the  Milwaukee  Cigarmakers'  and  Iron  Moulders'  unions,  in 
1869  the  Milwaukee  Machinists'  and  Blacksmiths'  Union,  and  in  1871 
the  Milwaukee  Tailors'  Union  and  the  Bay  View  Sons  of  Vulcan  sought 
and  were  granted  legal  recognition. 

^  In  the  spring  of  1867,  before  the  eight-hour  law  enacted  by  the  State 
legislature  went  into  operation,  the  Milwaukee  Ship  Carpenters'  and 
Caulkers',  the  Carpenters'  and  Joiners',  and  the  Machinists'  and  Black- 
smiths' unions  adopted  resolutions  in  which  they  proposed  to  accept 
proportionate  wage  reductions  (20  per  cent  in  all  these  cases).  All  work 
over  eight  hours,  however,  was  to  be  paid  for  at  the  regular  overtime 
rates. 


LABOR  179 

manufacturing  interests  of  Wisconsin;  and  declared 
that  agriculture,  the  predominant  interest  of  the 
State,  would  suffer  at  the  instance  of  a  mere  handful 
of  city  laborers.  "If  labor  could  secure  ten  hours'  pay 
for  eight  hours'  work,  it  would  be  an  injustice  to  the 
great  overwhelming  mass  of  agricultural  labor,  which 
works  longer  than  eight  hours  a  day,  for  it  would 
raise  the  price  of  manufactured  products  which  this 
class  consumes."^ 

As  early  as  1864  the  question  was  receiving  public 
discussion  in  Milwaukee.  On  Sept.  1,  1865  a  Labor 
Reform  Association  was  organized  in  the  city,  whose 
chief  object  was  declared  to  be  agitation  for  the 
shorter  day.  In  the  November  elections  of  1865 
candidates  for  the  State  legislature  in  several  of  the 
larger  cities  were  bidding  for  the  labor  vote  on  this 
issue,  and  though  the  friends  of  the  shorter  day  were 
probably  in  no  case  sufficiently  numerous  to  be  a 
decisive  factor  we  shall  see  that  the  succeeding 
legislature  was  not  entirely  hostile  to  the  movement. 
During  1866  and  the  early  part  of  1867  the  General 
Eight  Hour  League  of  Wisconsin, ^  an  outgrowth  of 
the  Milwaukee  Labor  Reform  Association,  spread 
among  the  larger  towns  of  the  State,  where  it  suc- 
ceeded in  winning  a  limited  support  for  its  program.^ 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  21,  1867. 

^  Early  in  1866  the  League  was  reported  to  be  considering  establish- 
ing an  organ  of  its  own  in  Milwaukee.  In  1867  it  attempted  to  secure 
incorporation  under  the  State  laws,  but  its  bill  was  defeated  in  the  Sen- 
ate. 

=  In  the  Milwaukee  municipal  election  of  April,  1866  the  Eight  Hour 
League  placed  in  the  field  candidates  for  the  common  council  in  six  of 
the  nine  wards  of  the  city.  For  mayor  it  endorsed  the  Democratic  nominee, 
John  T.  Tallmadge,  who  was  known  to  be  friendly  to  the  eight-hour  day. 
None  of  the  candidates  except  Tallmadge  was  elected. 


180  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

In  1866  Assemblyman  Orton  of  Milwaukee^  intro- 
duced in  the  legislature  a  bill  establishing  eight  hours 
as  a  legal  day's  labor  where  no  contract  existed  to  the 
contrary,  it  being  permitted,  however,  by  special 
agreement  to  increase  the  hours  to  a  number  not 
exceeding  ten.  On  Mar.  28,  1866  a  substitute  measure 
received  a  majority  in  the  Assembly,  only  to  be 
reconsidered  and  defeated  on  the  following  day. 
"The  main  object  of  the  bill,"  shrewdly  comments 
the  Madison  correspondent  of  the  Milwaukee  Sen- 
tinel, "was  to  afford  those  Assemblymen  who  rep- 
resent town  constituencies  an  opportunity  to  blow 
olf  a  little  steam  on  the  subject.  It  is  well  known  in 
Milwaukee  (and  perhaps  the  same  w^as  the  case  in 
other  localities)  that  two  or  three  members  were 
helped  into  their  seats  by  the  omnipotent  aid  of  the 
Eight-pointed  star."^ 

By  the  spring  of  1867  public  interest  in  the  eight- 
hour  question  was  at  its  height.  In  his  annual  message 
of  that  year  Governor  Fairchild  ofTicially  called  the 
attention  of  the  legislature  to  the  matter.  "To 
the  men  of  the  West,"  he  declared,  "most  of 
whom  have  at  some  time  been  laboring  men, 
surely  no  argument  is  needed  to  show  that  those 
who  create  the  wealth  of  the  country  should  be 
afforded  every  possible  facility  for  participating 
in  its  enjoyment,  and  that  the  non-producers 
should  not  enjoy  all  the  luxuries  of  hfe,  while  the 
producers  are  awarded  only  its  burdens." 

In  response  to  his  suggestion  three  bills  were  intro- 

1  Charles  H.  Orton  and  A.  R.  R.  BuUer  of  the  Milwaukee  legislative 
delegation  were  reported  to  have  won  their  seats  by  the  aid  of  the  labor 
vote. 

2  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Mar.  31,  1866. 


LABOR  181 

duced  in  the  Assembly  by  members  from  Milwaukee 
and  Racine,  one  of  which  was  enacted  into  law  on 
April  6,  1867.  It  provided  that  eight  hours  should 
constitute  a  day's  work  in  all  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments in  the  State  except  where  a  contract  was 
agreed  upon  to  the  contrary,  or  where  a  contract  was 
by  the  week,  month,  or  year.  Women,  and  children 
under  eighteen,  were  not  to  be  compelled  to  labor  for 
longer  than  eight  hours  in  any  one  day,  and  children 
under  fourteen  were  not  to  be  permitted  '  to  labor  for 
longer  than  ten  hours  in  any  one  day.  Like  most  of 
the  State  eight-hour  laws  enacted  at  that  time  this 
was  obviously  not  a  genuine  effort  to  arrive  at  an 
eight-hour  day.  Only  so  much  of  it  as  applied  to 
children  under  fourteen  years  of  age  appears  to  have 
been  sincere,  and  even  this  was  never  enforced. 

The  law  was  received  without  enthusiasm  by  the 
laboring  population  of  the  State.  Even  in  Milwaukee, 
where  agitation  had  centered,  interest  was  so  small 
that  the  labor  leaders  who  had  planned  a  demonstra- 
tion for  July  4,  when  it  was  to  go  into  operation, 
were  obliged  to  abandon  the  idea.  The  machinists 
and  blacksmiths,  who  had  been  its  most  ardent 
advocates,  now  resolved  to  postpone  its  adoption. 
E.  P.  Allis,  a  well-known  friend  of  labor,  who  in  1867 
was  rapidly  forging  to  the  front  as  a  manufacturer 
of  machinery,  offered  to  permit  his  men  to  work  eight 
hours  for  eight  hours'  pay,  but  his  offer  was  declined. 
Of  all  the  trades  in  Milwaukee  only  the  ship  carpen- 
ters and  caulkers  persevered.     On  July  4  they  cele- 

1  Compare  "permit"  used  in  this  clause  with  "compel,"  used  in  the  pre- 
ceding. The  employer  who  contracted  with  women  or  children  to  labor 
longer  than  eight  hours  per  day  did  not  "compel,"  and  therefore  did  not 
come  within  the  meaning  of  the  law. 


182  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

brated  the  advent  of  the  new  law  by  a  procession 
through  the  streets  of  the  city,  and  on  the  next  day, 
when  their  employers  refused  to  grant  the  shorter 
day,  secured  it  by  means  of  a  strike.  The  reduction 
of  70  cents  per  day  in  their  wages,  however,  soon 
dampened  their  enthusiasm,  and  before  the  month 
was  over  they  had  returned  to  ten  hours.  In  summing 
up  the  eight-hour  movement  it  may  be  said  that  for 
a  time  at  least  it  unified  the  interests  of  organized 
labor  in  the  State,  though  of  tangible  results  it  left 
none.^ 

The  temporary  industrial  depression  that  struck 
the  East  after  the  close  of  the  war  did  not  reach 
Wisconsin  until  three  years  later. ^  Once  arrived, 
however,  it  hung  on  long  after  the  East  had  recovered; 
indeed,  it  was  not  until  the  end  of  1871  that  prosperity 
returned.  During  these  years  of  hard  times,  when 
strikes  failed  and  unemployment  was  general,^  labor 

1  The  Milwaukee  Stone  Cutters'  Union  in  June,  1869  adopted  the 
eight-hour  day,  one  of  the  last  unions  of  that  craft  in  the  country  to  do 
so. 

2  During  1865,  1866,  and  1867  business  in  Wisconsin  was  progressing 
steadily,  wages  were  good,  and  unemployment  was  rare.  In  Milwaukee 
three  trade  unions  were  organized  during  these  years  in  addition  to 
those  elsewhere  mentioned,  the  Boilermakers',  Cabinetmakers',  and 
Stone  Cutters'.  Of  strikes  there  were  four  of  some  importance  in  Mil- 
waukee, those  of  the  Masons'  and  Bricklayers',  the  Printers',  and  the 
Coopers'  unions. 

3 1  have  found  record  of  approximately  a  dozen  strikes  in  various 
parts  of  the  State  during  these  years,  a  majority  of  which  were  directed 
against  wage  reductions  or  increase  of  hours.  The  Chicago  Working- 
man's  Advocate  of  June  11,  1870  comments  as  follows  upon  the  indus- 
trial situation  in  Milwaukee:  "From  a  correspondent  we  learn  that 
trade  matters  in  Milwaukee  are  very  dull;  a  large  majority  of  the  me- 
chanics of  that  city  are  content  with  the  offer  of  the  bosses.  Bricklay- 
ers who  work  up  to  their  knees  in  water  are  glad  to  get  $3.50  per  day, 
while  those  who  are  employed  on  buildings  average  only  $2.00.  The 
wood-butchers  are  if  possible  in  a  still  worse  condition,  while  the  plasterers 


LABOR  183 

turned  for  relief,  as  it  did  in  the  East,  to  politics. 
Early  in   1869  there  was  organized  at  Black  River 
Falls    by    the    State    Executive    Committee    of    the 
National  Labor  Union,  Wisconsin  Labor  Union  No. 
1,  an  organization  that  differed  widely  from  any  the 
State  had  hitherto  known.     Instead  of  limiting  its 
membership   to   a   particular    trade   it    proposed   to 
welcome  workers  of  every  employment  and  condi- 
tion ;i  instead  of  depending  upon  strikes  it  proposed 
to  accomplish  its  ends  by  uniting  the  labor  vote  at 
the  polls.     "By  the  adoption  of  the  principles  em- 
bodied in  the  platform  of  the  N.  L.  U.,"  wrote  the 
chairman  of  the  State  Executive  Committee  late  in 
1869,  "more  will  be  effected  in  the  establishment  of 
an  equitable  standard  of  wages  and  a  fair  distribution 
of   what   we    earn,  reasonable    hours,  and   universal 
emancipation  from  the  power  of  Capital  and  Parties, 
than  can  ever  be  accompUshed  by  trade  unions  as  at 
present  organized.   Let  us  all  go  to  work,  and  organize 
all  kinds  of  Labor  (no  matter  what  the  calling  or 
occupation)  into  one  common  Labor  Union,  without 
prejudice  or  jealousy,  *  *  *  and  then  our  votes  will 
bring  about  in  due  time  the  final  result  devoutly  to 
be  wished  for.'"^    Four  months  after  this  Black  River 
Falls  labor  union  was  organized,  it  issued  a  call  for  a 

take  what's  going.  Won't  some  enterprising  Milwaukean  contract  for 
a  load  of  coolies,  as  there  is  no  danger  of  the  mechanics  of  that  city  ob- 
jecting to  their  introduction."  In  1872  came  a  temporary  revival  of 
business,  accompanied  by  an  epidemic  of  strikes  in  every  part  of  the  State. 
At  least  fifteen  occurred  in  Milwaukee  alone,  of  which  those  of  the  coopers, 
printers,  and  cigar-makers  were  long  and  bitterly  fought. 

1  This  was  the  form  of  organization  later  adopted  by  the  Knights  of 
Labor.  It  was  well  suited  to  the  needs  of  frontier  communities,  where 
there  were  usually  too  few  mechanics  of  one  trade  at  work  to  make  pos- 
sible an  organization  along  trade  lines. 

2  Joseph  C.  Horey  in  Chicago  Workingman's  Advocate,  Dec.  2,  1869. 


184  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

State  convention  of  various  labor  associations  and 
friends  of  labor  to  meet  at  Watertown  on  Sept.  30, 
1869,  there  to  organize  a  State  Labor  Reform  party. 
The  convention  which  assembled  pursuant  to  this 
call  held  a  two-day  session  at  which  it  adopted  a 
State  and  a  national  program  embodying  the  views 
of  the  National  Labor  Congress.^  The  State  policy 
was  declared  to  be: 

1.  To  blend  and  assimilate  the  interests  of  the  different  mechanical 
trades  with  all  branches  of  industry. 

2.  To  establish  a  uniform  price  upon  all  kinds  of  labor;  equal  rights  to 
all  who  toil,  be  they  man,  woman,  or  child — from  the  commonest  day 
laborer  to  the  best  mechanic;  from  the  private  soldier  to  the  general  in 
command. 

3.  To  have  the  value  of  all  necessary  commodities  of  life  produced  by 
labor,  measured  by  the  amount  of  service  used  in  producing  them. 

4.  To  have  all  manufactured  articles  stamped  and  marked,  how  made 
and  the  kind  of  material  of  which  they  are  made. 

5.  To  establish  a  healthy,  friendly,  rational  intercourse  between  the 
diflerent  mechanical  trades — farmers  and  miners,  and  other  producers 
of  raw  material,  upon  principles  of  common  sense  and  justice. 

6.  To  establish  such  a  system  of  political  and  financial  laws  as  will 
give  to  all  and  each  the  full  amount  of  what  is  produced  by  their  toil.^ 

With  the  adoption  of  this  somewhat  vague  plat- 
form the  convention  adjourned,  making  no  attempt 
to  place  in  the  field  any  candidates  for  State  office.^ 

1  For  the  program  of  the  National  Labor  Congress  see  Commons, 
Hist,  of  Amer.  Labor  Movements,  Ms. 

2  Watertown  Democrat,  Oct.  7,  1869. 

3  The  convention  appears  to  have  been  dominated  by  the  Milwaukee 
delegates.  All  of  the  officers  elected  were  Milwaukee  men— Thomas  C. 
Tinker,  president,  representing  the  Milwaukee  Masons'  and  Bricklay- 
ers' Union,  August  F.  Brunnotto,  secretary,  the  Milwaukee  Tailors',  and 
Fred  Treyser,  treasurer,  the  Milwaukee  Typographical  Union.  Milwau- 
kee was  designated  as  the  headquarters  of  the  organization  and  Water- 
town  as  the  place  for  holding  conventions.  The  date  for  the  next  an- 
nual convention  was  set  for  June  28,  1870,  but  whether  it  ever  assembled 
can  not  be  determined  from  any  of  the  Milwaukee  or  Watertown  papers. 
In  1872  the  organization  seems  to  have  elected  James  N.  Ruby,  repre- 
senting Wisconsin  Labor  Union  No.  3  of  Oshkosh,  as  its  representative 


LABOR  185 

Apparently  it  was  realized  that  interest  in  labor 
reform  was  too  limited  to  justify  an  active  campaign. 
In  Milwaukee  a  number  of  interested  trade  unions 
held  a  joint  meeting  to  receive  and  ratify  the  report 
of  their  delegates  and  incidentally  to  organize  a  City 
Labor  Reform  Assembly,^  but  beyond  this  the  con- 
vention appears  to  have  been  ignored. 

The  following  year  the  chairman  of  the  State 
Executive  Committee  at  Black  River  Falls,  who 
optimistically  estimated  the  number  of  members 
enrolled  under  the  banner  of  the  Labor  Reform 
movement  at  5,000,  issued  a  new  call  for  a  State 
nominating  convention  to  be  held  at  La  Crosse  on 
September  24.  If  such  a  convention  ever  met  it  was 
not  noticed  by  the  local  papers;  at  all  events  no 
ticket  of  the  new  party  made  its  appearance.  In  the 
Fourth  Ward  of  Milwaukee  in  1869  and  in  Black 
River  Falls  in  1872  local  labor  tickets  were  placed  in 
the  field,  but  beyond  such  local  manifestations  the 
political  efforts  of  Wisconsin  labor  at  this  time 
appear  to  have  produced  no  tangible  results. 

The  history  of  the  Wisconsin  labor  movement 
during  the  years  of  the  war  and  the  years  immediately 
following  is  thus  a  record  of  faint  and  uncertain 
beginnings.    Wisconsin  was  still  predominantly  agri- 

to  the  Ohio  convention  of  the  National  Labor  Reform  party,  but  his 
name  does  not  appear  among  the  list  of  delegates  who  were  accredited. 
1  The  Milwaukee  Labor  Reform  Assembly  (also  referred  to  as  City 
Labor  Union)  was  organized  Oct.  8,  1869,  the  first  trade  assembly  to 
be  organized  in  the  history  of  the  State.  At  its  second  meeting  on  October 
20  it  appointed  committees  to  organize  the  various  wards  in  the  city 
into  Labor  Reform  Leagues.  The  political  reforms  demanded  by  work- 
ingmen  in  Milwaukee  were  the  abolition  of  the  caucus  system  and  the 
opening  of  the  polls  on  election  day  from  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  until 
eight  o'clock  at  night. 


186  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

cultural;  her  industrial  population  was  too  limited  and 
scattered  to  permit  of  efTective  organization.  The 
story  of  this  first  organizing  of  the  wage-earning  class 
in  the  State  is  interesting  chiefly  as  it  reflects  the 
more  significant  movements  that  were  going  on  in 
the  larger  industrial  centers  of  the  North. 


CHAPTER  VII 
BANKING 

The  panic  attending  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War 
played  havoc  with  the  banking  system  of  Wisconsin. 
The  consequences  of  a  previous  decade  of  reckless 
financiering  were  abruptly  visited  upon  the  people 
of  the  State.  For  a  year  and  a  half  Wisconsin  expiated 
old  sins  by  monetary  and  industrial  disaster.  She 
was  not  alone,  however,  in  these  difficulties.  The 
conservative  East  was  almost  as  sorely  tried.  In 
the  West,  Illinois  suffered  more  keenly  even  than 
Wisconsin;  Indiana  and  Missouri  endured  almost  as 
much. 

It  was  a  simple  and  profitable  matter  to  set  up  a 
banking  business  in  Wisconsin  prior  to  the  Civil  War. 
An  individual  invested  $25,000  or  more  in  the  bonds 
of  some  state  or  of  the  United  States,  which  he 
deposited  with  the  bank  comptroller.  In  exchange 
he  received  paper  currency  equal  in  amount  to  the 
market  value  of  his  securities.  With  $25,000  it  was 
possible  at  the  beginning  of  1860  to  purchase  the 
depreciated  bonds  of  Missouri,  for  example,  to  the 
face  value  of  $31,250.  Missouri  paid  upon  these 
evidences  of  indebtedness  annual  interest  at  the  rate 
of  6  per  cent,  which  upon  the  sum  of  $31,250  netted 
an  income  of  $1,875.  The  banker  having  deposited 
his  Missouri  securities  was  presented  by  the  comp- 

f  187  1 


188  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

troller  with  S25,000  in  bank  notes.  He  was  permitted 
to  loan  these  to  clients  at  an  interest  rate  of  10  per 
cent,  which  netted  him  an  additional  $2,500.  Upon 
an  investment  of  $25,000  he  thus  realized  a  yearly 
income  of  $4,375  or  17J  per  cent.  This  business  was 
eminently  safe  and  profitable,  and  banks  of  issue 
naturally  were  plentiful  in  Wisconsin. 

The  Wisconsin  code  stipulated  that  the  issuing  of 
paper  money  should  be  merely  an  incident  of  the 
banker's  activity;  that  his  chief  function  should 
be  to  provide  discount,  deposit,  and  exchange  facil- 
ities for  commercial  operations.^  This  was  intended 
as  a  measure  of  safety.  It  was,  however,  universally 
ignored.  In  1860  the  bulk  of  Wisconsin's  currency  was 
issued  by  institutions  engaged  in  no  other  business.^ 
The  banks  located  in  the  small  and  isolated  lumber 
town  of  Eau  Claire,  for  example,  had  on  Oct.  1,  1860 
a  total  circulation  of  $536,764.  On  the  other  hand  all 
the  powerful  commercial  banks  in  the  city  of  Mil- 
waukee had  a  circulation  of  only  $86,521.^ 

As  a  further  measure  of  safety  the  Wisconsin  law 
required  banks  to  possess  a  working  capital  of  at 
least  $25,000."  To  legitimate  banking  this  was  an 
obvious  necessity.  It  was  essential  not  only  to  the 
ordinary  commercial  operations  of  a  banking  insti- 
tution but  to  the  prompt  redemption  of  its  paper 
money.  However,  the  law  did  not  specifically  direct 
the  State  comptroller  to  inquire  whether  banks  ever 
had  their  capital  actually  paid  in,  and  the  require- 

»Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1858,  chap.  116. 

''Wisconsin   Bank    Comptroller,   Reports,    1857-65.     The   department 
held  $834,000  worth  of  Tennessee  bonds  and  $188,000  of  Virginia  bonds. 
»/rf.,  1860,  11-26;  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1861,  596-600. 
*  Wisconsin  Revised  Statutes,  1858,  chap.  71,  sec.  1. 


i^tekS's,  ,tv-*  )5i4,-,  ~ ' 


TH&  CITY  BANK 


!m  ^^^''^^Z.^^m 


«i,i"..H»I.H.H  ■HWin  -■»*^-jt^^__  1 


/////>.//  ONE  DOLB^R 


.^'■'' 


i\ 


/  /-•  ///  ,'y  r/,,.    La  f  fiQS^Jg.    ///^i     X,     , , ,  /  i,« 


WISCONSIN  BANK  NOTES  IN  USE  DURING  THE  CIVIL  WAR 
Originals  in  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Museum 


BANKING  189 

ment  was  consequently  universally  ignored.^  Instead, 
it  was  the  practice  to  regard  as  capital  the  securities 
deposited  with  the  coniptroller  for  the  protection  of 
outstanding  currency.  "Banks,"  declared  Governor 
Randall  in  his  annual  message  of  1858,  "were  expected 
to  conduct  their  business  upon  their  owm  capital, 
and  give  security  besides,  and  such  was  the  view  held 
and  acted  upon  by  the  Bank  Department  until  a 
period  quite  recent.  During  the  past  year,  however, 
an  entire  change  seems  to  have  taken  place  in  the 
practice  of  the  Department  in  this  respect,  so  that 
at  this  time  the  stocks  or  collateral  deposited,  is 
made  to  stand  for  and  represent  bank  capital  itself; 
and  very  large  issues  of  bills  have  been  credited  and 
put  into  circulation  upon  this  hypothesis."- 

A  bank  whose  lack  of  working  capital  rendered  it 
unable  upon  demand  to  redeem  its  notes  could  not 
easily  maintain  itself  in  a  commercial  center  where 
its  paper  could  be  protested  and  its  affairs  legally 
wound  up.  It  was  the  practice  of  the  wildcat  insti- 
tutions of  Wisconsin,  therefore,  to  establish  their 
offices  in  remote  and  inaccessible  places,  in  swamps, 
or  in  the  unknown  northern  wilderness.  One  keen 
fmancier  dodged  his  note  holders  by  naming  his 
institution  "Bank  of  Green  Bay."  This  title  he 
printed  upon  his  currency,  though  his  actual  location 
was  La  Crosse.  In  numerous  instances,  according 
to  Governor  Randall,  banks  were  established  at 
points  "unknown  to  the  people  of  the  State  or  the 
maps,  inaccessible,  and  beyond  the  reach  of  bill- 
holders,  even  when  known;  and  not  unfrequently  the 

»  See  Wis.  Bank  Comptroller,  Report,  1857,  7. 
2  Wis.  Mess,  and  Docs.,  1858,  15. 


190  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

bills  appear  to  be  signed  by  fictitious  names  as  officers, 
by  minors,  or  by  persons  pecuniarily  irresponsible."  ^ 

Dangerous  as  this  condition  was,  the  State  moved 
only  half-heartedly  to  correct  it.  An  adequate  remedy 
would  have  been  a  system  of  central  redemption, 
requiring  every  bank  in  the  State  upon  demand  to 
exchange  its  paper  at  a  central  point,  such  as  Mil- 
waukee or  Madison,  for  lawful  money  of  the  United 
States.  Such  a  measure  was  urgently  demanded  by 
the  more  conservative  bankers  of  the  State,  but  could 
not  be  obtained.  Instead,  the  legislature  of  1858 
enacted  a  law  forbidding  banking  associations  to 
establish  themselves  in  any  township  containing  less 
than  200  voters,^  a  loose  requirement  that  offered 
little  real  protection.  The  State  comptroller  as  late  as 
1861  still  found  numbers  of  banks  of  issue  in  existence 
that  had  not  even  an  office  where  their  bills  could  be 
presented  for  redemption  or  protested  in  case  of 
nonpayment.^  The  currency  of  Wisconsin  continued 
to  be  for  all  practical  purposes  inconvertible. 

The  most  glaring  weakness  in  the  banking  system 
of  Wisconsin,  however,  lay  in  the  character  of  the 
securities  which  were  required  to  be  deposited  with 
the  State.  The  law  called  for  bonds  or  stocks  of  the 
United  States,  or  of  some  state,  which  should  "be,  or 
be  made  to  be  equal  to  a  stock  producing  six  per  cent 
per  annum. '"*  The  bank  comptroller  in  1860  observed: 

It  is  obvious  that  the  safest  bonds,  viz:  of  states  that  are  in  the  most 
prosperous  financial  condition,  and  relatively  the  least  encumbered  with 

1  Ibid. 

2  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1858,  chap.  98. 

3  Wis.  Bank  Comptroller,  Report,  1861,  7,  114-20;  see  also  Governor 
Randall's  annual  message  for  1860  in  Wis.  Mess,  and  Docs.,  1860,  9-10. 

*  Wis.  Rev.  Statutes,  1858,  chap.  71,  sec.  22. 


BANKING  191 

debt,  do  not  secure  the  highest  rate  of  interest,  and  if  liberal  interest  is 
paid  on  them  they  can  not  be  bought  at  low  prices.  No  banker,  therefore, 
buys  U.  S.,  New  England  or  New  York  bonds  as  security  for  his  circula- 
tion, but  mainly  such  as  in  fact  are  more  or  less  depreciated,  confiding  in 
his  own  good  luck  and  in  the  future  development  of  the  resources  of 
States  of  which  he  has  become  the  creditor.  The  law  ought  not  to  en- 
courage speculating  propensities  in  any  person  or  persons  engaged  in  bank- 
ing business  and  jeopardize  the  future  safety  of  our  circulation.  On  six, 
seven  and  eight  per  cent  paying  bonds,  the  department,  under  the  law,  issues 
circulation  up  to  the  whole  amount  of  their  market  value,  on  condition 
that  they  are  below  par,  or  in  other  words,  provided  that  the  ablest 
financiers  of  the  country  deem  them  unsafe,  and  are  not  willing  to  take 
them  for  the  price  at  which  they  were  issued;  but  bonds,  on  which  those 
same  financiers  are  w'illing  to  pay  from  one  to  ten  per  cent  in  advance  of 
the  sum,  for  which  they  were  originally  issued,  in  fact  such  bonds  or 
stocks  as  would  be  an  eminently  safe  basis  for  our  circulation,  the  Comp- 
troller refuses,  under  the  law,  to  take  at  market  value,  discriminating 
against  the  best  and  in  favor  of  the  poorest  kind  of  securities.  It  would 
seem  more  reasonable,  if  the  Comptroller  had  been  forbidden  to  take  6 
or  7  per  cent  bearing  stock,  which  stands  below  par,  at  market  price,  and 
if  he  had  been  ordered  to  take,  at  market  price,  such  only  as  are  at  or 
above  par.  As  the  law  stands  we  effectually  encourage  the  bankers  to 
buy  as  security  the  least  safe  class  of  bonds  or  stocks,  and  put  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  purchasing  the  best.  The  banker,  for  instance,  who  has 
deposited  Missouri  6  per  cent  bonds  not  only  expects  to  earn  two  per  cent 
per  annum  [in  interest]  more  on  the  securities  deposited,  than  he  who 
has  secured  his  circulation  with  Illinois',  Michigan's  or  Indiana's,  but 
the  Missouri  man  gets  circulation  for  the  whole  value  of  his  bonds  while, 
for  instance,  the  holder  of  Illinois  and  Michigan  bonds  receives  only  100 
circulation  on  bonds  he  can  sell  at  any  time  for  105.^ 

Southern  states,  particularly  Missouri,  Virginia, 
Tennessee,  North  Carolina,  and  Louisiana,  were  at 
this  time  heavily  in  debt.  Their  bonds,  which  paid 
high  interest,  ranged  in  varying  degrees  below  par. 
These  were  the  securities  that  the  bankers  of  Wis- 
consin deposited  with  the  State,  and  these  formed 
the  basis  of  Wisconsin's  circulation.  On  Jan.  1,  1860, 
of  the  85,133,565  banking  securities  deposited  with 
the  comptroller,  $3,658,000  were  in  the  bonds  of  the 
five  southern   states   noted   above.      Missouri  alone 

>  Wis.  Bank  Comptroller,  Report,  1860,  7. 


192  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

furnished  $2,049,000  of  the  total,i  of  which  Governor 
Randall  declared  in  his  first  message  to  the  legislature, 
"while  a  few  operators  in  Wall  Street  may  give  them 
a  fictitious  value  as  a  banking  basis,  it  is  believed  that 
were  the  demand  created  for  [them  by]  banking  in 
Illinois  and  Wisconsin  to  cease,  they  would  sink  at 
once  far  below  the  rates  at  which  they  are  received 
on  deposit  as  security  for  our  bank  circulation. "^ 

The  few  citizens  in  Wisconsin  who  knew  of  this 
dangerous  situation  were  lulled  into  a  sense  of  false 
security  by  a  provision  in  the  State  law  requiring 
each  banker  to  guarantee  by  personal  bondsmen 
one-fourth  of  his  total  outstanding  currency.^  This 
would,  indeed,  have  furnished  a  measure  of  protection 
if  the  law  had  been  rigorously  enforced.  Unfortu- 
nately Wisconsin  bank  comptrollers  did  not  inquire 
carefully  into  the  character  or  standing  of  the  bonds- 
men, and  the  latter,  in  times  of  emergency,  frequently 
turned  out  to  be  irresponsible. 

Amid  these  manifold  weaknesses  there  was  one 
important  element  of  strength.  This  was  the  Wis- 
consin Bankers'  Association,  established  in  Milwau- 
kee on  Sept.  8,  1858,  during  the  height  of  industrial 
depression.''  The  purpose  for  which  it  was  organized 
was  to  compel  wildcat  banks,  located  in  inaccessible 
places,  to  redeem  their  currency  at  a  central  seat  of 
exchange.  Composed  of  many  of  the  ablest  bankers 
in    Wisconsin,    its    early    policies   were  shaped  to  a 

1  Tennessee   furnished   $750,000,   North   Carolina,   $403,500,  Virginia, 
$240,600,  and  Louisiana,  $153,500. 

2  Wis.  Mess,  and  Docs.,  1858,  21. 

^  Wis.  Rev.  Statutes,  chap.  71,  sees.  33-37. 

^  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Sept.  9  and  10,  1858.    For  proceedings  which  led 
to  the  organization  of  the  Association  see  ibid.,  Aug.  7,  1857. 


BANKING  193 

considerable  degree  by  Alexander  Mitchell,  its  first 
president  and  the  greatest  pioneer  financier  in  the 
State.  Throughout  the  critical  years  of  the  Civil 
War  it  exercised  over  Wisconsin  banks  a  conserva- 
tive and  salutary  influence. 

Prior  to  1860  the  bonds  of  southern  states  were  not 
likely  to  become  dangerously  impaired  in  value 
except  during  industrial  disturbances.  They  had 
occasioned  bankers  in  Wisconsin  some  embarrass- 
ment in  the  panic  of  1857,  but  the  losses  had  not  been 
sufficiently  severe  to  bring  discredit  upon  the  State 
currency,  and  therefore  no  public  feeling  existed 
against  them.  In  January,  1860,  when  industrial 
conditions  were  again  nearly  normal,  Missouri  bonds 
were  worth  80  cents  on  the  dollar;  Tennessee,  86; 
Virginia,  91;  North  Carolina,  94;  and  Louisiana,  94. ^ 

During  the  autumn  of  1860  the  slavery  controversy 
injected  a  new  element  of  danger  into  the  employment 
of  southern  bonds.  Lincoln,  it  was  evident,  would  be 
elected.  The  slave  states  freely  threatened  in  that 
event  to  leave  the  Union.  As  a  result  the  value  of 
their  securities  underwent  a  general  decline.  The 
bank  comptroller  of  Wisconsin  in  1860  found  it 
necessary  to  forbid  the  further  deposit  of  Missouri 
bonds  and  to  restrict,  also,  those  of  Tennessee  and 
Virginia.2  On  October  15,  three  weeks  before  the 
day  of  election,  he  was  obliged  to  issue  a  depreciation 
levy  of  2  per  cent  against  all  Missouri  securities  in 
his  possession.3  The  sectional  dispute  was  merely 
intensified  by  the  success  of  the  Republican  party 

1  See  New  York  daily  press  for  January,  1860. 

2  Wis.  Bank  Comptroller,  Report,  1860,  3;  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, Report,  1860,  47. 

3/d..  1861,  4. 


194  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

at  the  polls,  and  by  the  end  of  November,  Missouri 
bonds  were  worth  only  68  cents  on  the  dollar;  Ten- 
nessee, 74;  Virginia,  77;  and  North  Carolina,  79.^  A 
second  time  the  comptroller  was  obliged  to  issue  a 
depreciation  call,  and  still  the  decline  continued. ^ 

The  difficulty  passed  beyond  the  control  of  State 
authorities  in  the  spring  of  1861,  when  secession 
became  an  established  fact  and  the  hostile  sections 
prepared  for  war.  Early  in  February  the  bank 
comptroller  deemed  it  imperative  to  issue  a  third 
depreciation  levy,  heavier  than  any  of  the  preceding, 
upon  southern  securities.  The  State  legislature, 
however,  intervened.  On  February  15  it  authorized 
a  postponement  of  the  call,  notwithstanding  the 
banking  code  specifically  forbade  such  delay. ^  "Many 
well  informed  citizen^,"  wrote  the  comptroller,  "had 
declared  that  a  general  failure,  involving  three- 
fourths  of  all  the  banks,  was  imminent,  unless  relief 
in  some  shape  was  granted;  and  there  is  scarcely  any 
occasion  for  doubt  but  at  least  eighty  out  of  the  one 
hundred  and  nine  then  existing  banks  would  have 
failed,  entailing  an  immense  loss  on  the  currency, 
and  probably  on  the  deposits  of  the  people."" 

No  mere  temporary  forbearance,  however,  could 
long  hold  intact  the  tottering  financial  system  of  the 
State.  On  April  2  the  comptroller  issued  the  post- 
poned levy  and  thirteen  banks  failed  to  respond.^  On 
April  4  the  bankers  of  Chicago  threw  out  the  notes 
of  forty   of   the    109   Wisconsin   institutions,   and   a 

1  New  York  daily  press  for  period  mentioned. 

2  Wis.  Bank  Comptroller,  Report,  1861,  4. 

3  Wis.  Sen.  Jour.,  1861,  225. 

^  Wis.  Bank  Comptroller,  Report,  1861,  5. 
5  Ibid.,  5-6. 


BANKING  195 

number  of  leading  merchants  in  the  Illinois  metropolis 
refused  to  accept  any  Wisconsin  currency.^  On  the 
following  day  the  Milwaukee  bankers,  with  the  ap- 
proval of  the  executive  committee  of  the  State 
Bankers'  Association,  refused  to  receive  the  notes  of 
twenty  of  the  establishments  thrown  out  in  Chicago. 
Approximately  $1,000,000  of  Wisconsin  paper  money 
was  thereby  completely  discredited. ^  On  April  13 
came  the  news  of  the  bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter. 
A  week  later  the  bonds  of  Missouri  had  fallen  to 
39|,  of  Virginia  to  36,  of  Tennessee  to  41,  and  of 
North  Carolina  to  45.'  The  currency  of  the  dis- 
credited Badger  banks  wxnt  begging  about  the  streets 
of  Milwaukee  at  50  cents  on  the  dollar."  Never  had 
the  State  experienced  such  a  collapse  as  this. 

The  legislature  again  interposed,  and  again  the 
relief  which  it  granted  was  contrary  to  the  State 
constitution.  On  April  17  it  passed  an  act  that 
amounted  to  suspension  of  specie  payments.^  Since 
the  basic  law  of  Wisconsin  stood  in  the  way  of  such 
a  change  the  legislature  was  compelled  to  accomplish 
its  object  by  indirection.  It  ordered  the  comptroller 
to  suspend  action  during  the  succeeding  seven  months 
against  institutions  that  might  fail  to  redeem  their 
bank  notes;  it  prohibited  notaries  public  from  pro- 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  April  7,  1861;  Green  Bay  Advocate,  April  11,  1861. 
An  excellent  account  is  found  in  Conard,  History  of  Milwaukee,  268-69. 

2  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  April  7,  8,  and  9,  1861;  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis., 
April  16,  1861;  Wis.  Bank  Comptroller,  Report,  1860,  11-26.  One  of 
the  twenty,  the  State  Stock  Bank  of  Eau  Claire,  was  at  first  placed  on 
probation,  and  was  published  in  the  discredited  list  only  after  it  had 
failed  to  make  good  its  securities.  Three  banks  had  failed  previous  to 
April  8,  with  a  total  circulation  of  approximately  $250,000. 

3  See  financial  columns  of  New  York  daily  press. 

*  See  financial  columns  of  Milwaukee  daily  press. 
5  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1861,  chap.  308. 


196  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

testing  such  money  until  December  1;  and  gave 
banks  until  that  time  to  answer  complaints  in  any 
proceedings  brought  to  compel  specie  payments. 
The  only  practicable  test  of  the  solvency  of  banks  in 
Wisconsin  had  now  disappeared.  Confusion  and  un- 
certainty intensified  the  existing  crisis.  At  length  the 
Bankers'  Association  was  compelled  to  summon  a 
special  convention  of  its  members  to  meet  at  Milwau- 
kee. The  commercial  editor  of  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel 
on  the  night  of  April  25  reported: 

We  doubt  if  such  a  day  as  this  has  ever  been  witnessed  in  the  money 
market.  Ever  since  Tuesday  it  has  been  known  that  a  convention  of 
bankers  would  be  held  here  tonight,  and  it  was  generally  supposed  that 
the  meeting  would  take  action  in  regard  to  the  issues  of  banks  heretofore 
in  good  standing.  *  *  *  All  was  feverish  excitement,  business  on  Change 
was  brought  to  a  standstill,  nobody  wanted  to  touch  any  currency.  *  *  * 
Large  numbers  thronged  the  stores  to  purchase,  but  merchants  wanted 
to  do  no  business,  and  many  went  so  far  as  to  close  their  stores  entirely. 
Men  rushed  about  the  street  to  pay  some  debt,  which  otherwise  they 
would  never  have  thought  of;  but  every  one  was  willing  to  trust  for 
anything;  in  fact,  the  whole  city  could  have  been  bought  on  time,  and 
very  long  time  at  that. 

As  was  anticipated,  the  convention  threw  out 
eighteen  banks  in  addition  to  the  twenty-three  pre- 
viously discredited.  The  paper  money  of  these 
institutions,  amounting  to  about  $800,000,  imme- 
diately sank  from  par  to  50  cents. ^  Altogether  ap- 
proximately $2,000,000  of  Wisconsin's  wildcat  cur- 
rency thus  dropped  into  complete  discredit  at  the 
first  sign  of  the  Civil  War. 

The  convention  did  not  permit  the  weeding  out 
of  this  unstable  money  to  absorb  its  entire  energy, 
however.     It  at  once  set  to  work  to  restore  public 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  April  27,  1861,  and  the  succeeding  issues.  One 
of  the  eighteen,  the  Beloit  Savings  Bank,  had  also  been  in  the  list  thrown 
out  on  April  5. 


BANKING  197 

confidence  in  the  remainder.  It  issued  a  sweeping 
statement  to  the  people  of  Wisconsin,  guaranteeing 
the  notes  of  the  seventy  banks  still  in  good  standing. 
Each  member  of  the  Association  agreed  to  receive 
these  notes  at  par  until  the  date  of  the  resumption 
of  specie  payment  seven  months  hence. ^ 

The  pledge  as  a  remedy  was  as  dangerous  as  the 
crisis  which  called  it  forth.  The  currency  of  the 
seventy  banks  which  it  underwrote  amounted  to 
$2,150,000.  More  than  half  of  this,  if  judged  by  the 
value  of  the  securities  upon  which  it  was  based,  was 
worth  not  even  50  cents  on  the  dollar.  The  greater 
part  of  the  remainder  ranged  in  varying  degrees  from 
50  to  80  cents  on  the  dollar.  Only  $166,220  was 
fully  protected  in  the  bank  comptroller's  office  by 
par  securities  as  the  State  law  required. ^  However, 
the  people  of  Wisconsin  accepted  the  guarantee  in 
good  faith  and  the  panic  quickly  subsided. 

During  the  spring  of  1861  the  securities  of  seceded 
southern  states  continued  steadily  to  decline.  On 
June  3  the  comptroller  was  compelled  to  issue  a 
fourth  levy  against  them,  heavier  than  any  that  had 
preceded.^  It  was  no  cause  for  surprise  or  worry  that 
the  forty-one  banks  already  discredited  neglected  to 
answer  the  summons.    It  was,  however,  a  rude  shock 

^  Ibid.,  April  27, 1861.  Fifty-five  Wisconsin  banks  signed  the  agreement, 
among  them  all  the  Milwaukee  banks  save  one. 

*  These  valuations  are  based  upon  a  statement  furnished  the  State 
Senate  by  the  bank  comptroller  on  May  22,  1861.  See  Wis.  Sen.  Jour., 
1861,  extra  session,  35.  The  Bank  Department  held  from  each  bank  in 
addition  to  marketable  securities  the  personal  bonds  of  stockholders  to  a 
total  amount  of  one-fourth  its  circulation.  In  almost  every  case,  how- 
ever, where  banks  were  wound  up  by  the  comptroller  these  bonds  proved 
to  be  worthless. 

'Wis.  Bank  Comptroller,  Report,  1861,  7. 


198  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

when  eighteen  of  the  seventy  institutions  vouched 
for  by  the  convention  likewise  failed  to  respond. 
Even  more  menacing  was  the  fact  that  ten  of  the 
latter  in  rapid  succession  confessed  their  insolvency 
by  closing  their  doors. 

The  guarantors  of  Wisconsin's  currency  were 
dismayed.  For  every  discredited  bill  of  the  ten 
bankrupt  banks,  $355,000  in  all,^  they  were  required 
by  the  terms  of  their  pledge  to  exchange  dollar  for 
dollar  legal  money  of  the  United  States.  The  burden 
thus  unexpectedly  thrown  upon  them  was  doubled, 
moreover,  by  bad  faith  on  the  part  of  many  interior 
banks.  Contrary  to  their  agreement  the  latter 
secretly  sorted  the  paper  money  that  they  received, 
hoarding  the  best  and  paying  out  only  the  poorest. 

The  Milwaukee  banks,  more  than  any  others  in 
the  State,  were  endangered  by  this  situation.  Large 
note-receiving  corporations  such  as  railroads,  with 
headquarters  in  the  Cream  City,  deposited  there  all 
the  suspicious  currency  which  they  gathered  and 
demanded  credit  for  it  to  its  full  face  value. ^  It  was 
springtime;  the  farmers  were  purchasing  their  sup- 
plies; all  the  doubtful  notes  in  the  State  swiftly 
gravitated  toward  the  metropolis.  The  bankers  of 
Milwaukee  faced  a  dilemma.  Either  they  must  per- 
mit themselves  to  be  overwhelmed  with  deposits  that 
upon  the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  if  not  soon- 
er, would  be  worth  but  a  fraction  of  the  amount  for 
which  they  had  been  received,  or  they  must  repudiate 
their  pledge.     They  preferred  the  latter  alternative. 

1  Compiled  from  the  Wis.  Bank  Comptroller,  Report,  1860,  and  the 
statement  furnished  to  the  Senate  by  the  comptroller,  op.  cit. 
»  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  June  24,  1861. 


BANKING  199 

On  June  21  they  met  and  agreed  no  longer  to  receive 
the  notes  of  the  ten  suspended  banks. ^ 

The  resolution  was  not  published  until  the  close  of 
business  on  Saturday,  June  22.  The  laboring  men 
of  Milwaukee  in  the  meantime  had  been  paid  their 
week's  wages  largely  in  the  notes  of  the  ten  dis- 
credited banks.  They  found  when  they  reached 
their  homes  that  their  bills  were  no  longer  receivable 
except  at  a  ruinous  discount.  They  did  not  under- 
stand that  a  complicated  banking  system  was  re- 
sponsible for  their  misfortune.  They  saw  only  that 
they  had  suddenly  lost  the  fruits  of  their  toil  and 
that  somehow  the  banks  were  to  blame.  It  was 
freely  charged,  moreover,  and  with  apparent  truth, 
that  some  of  the  city  banks  had  continued  during 
Saturday  to  pay  out  over  their  counters  the  notes 
which  they  had  previously  resolved  to  proscribe. ^ 
The  laborers,  and  particularly  the  Germans  residing 
in  the  northwest  section  of  the  city,  were  ablaze 
with  anger. 

Trouble  was  brewing  all  day  Sunday.  On  Monday 
morning  an  excited  crowd  assembled  on  the  north 
side  of  the  metropolis  and,  preceded  by  a  band, 
marched  to  the  business  center.  Arriving  at  the  ofTice 
of  the  Wisconsin  Marine  and  Fire  Insurance  Com- 
pany, the  oldest  and  most  prominent  bank  in  the 
State,  the  procession  was  met  by  Alexander  Mitchell 
accompanied  by  the  mayor  of  Milwaukee.  The  two 
men  attempted  to  gain  a  hearing  but  were  hooted 
down  by  the  now  thoroughly  lawless  mob  and 
Mitchell  was  forced  to  beat  a  hasty  retreat.    A  riot 

1  Ibid. 

2  See  ibid.,  June  25-July  5,  1861;  Conard,  History  of  Milwaukee,  269. 


200  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

was  soon  in  full  progress.  The  near-by  banking 
ofilces  were  gutted,  their  broken  furniture  piled  high 
in  the  adjacent  streets  and  set  on  fire,  and  more 
serious  consequences  were  averted  only  by  the  prompt 
arrival  of  troops.^ 

For  a  week  Milwaukee  remained  in  a  state  of 
feverish  excitement.  The  farmers  living  in  the  out- 
lying districts  were  reported  to  be  aroused  and  pre- 
paring to  invade  the  city  for  the  purpose  of  wreaking 
new  vengeance  on  its  banks.  On  July  1  a  procession 
of  500  agriculturists  and  laboring  men,  led  by  a 
mounted  German  who  flourished  a  drawn  sword 
"in  a  highly  excited  if  not  graceful  manner,"  paraded 
the  business  center  of  the  metropolis. ^  Only  the 
presence  of  several  scowling  cannon  stationed  at 
the  approaches  of  the  banking  section,  and  four 
companies  of  troops  that  had  been  hurried  there, 
prevented  further  disturbances.  Business  in  the 
meantime  was  prostrate.  With  the  convention  pledge 
repudiated  it  was  impossible  to  tell  from  day  to  day 
what  bank  notes  would  next  fall  into  disrepute. 

It  so  happened  that  at  this  time  the  State  govern- 
ment was  engaged  in  an  attempt  to  float  a  war  loan 
of  $1,200,000.  The  legislature  had  entrusted  the 
matter  to  a  board  of  loan  commissioners,  who  in 
the  spring  of  1861  had  journeyed  to  New  York  for 
that  purpose.    They  had  met  with  a  cold  reception. 

*  For  a  description  of  the  riot  see  Milwaukee  daily  press  for  June  25, 
1861  and  issues  immediately  following;  see  also  Conard,  History  of  Mil- 
waukee, 269.  The  banks  had  received  sufficient  warning  to  be  able  to  hurry 
their  valuables  into  vaults.  Eventually  the  city  of  Milwaukee  paid  $3,000 
to  repair  the  damage  done  by  the  mob. 

2  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  July  2,  1861;  Milwaukee  Dailij  Wis.,  July  1,  2, 
and  12,  1861. 


BANKING  201 

The  very  best  of  securities  in  the  panic  months  that 
marked  the  opening  of  the  Civil  War  found  difficult 
sale  in  the  New  York  stock  exchange.  The  bonds  of 
the  United  States,  for  example,  then  sold  for  only 
83  cents  on  the  dollar.^  State  bonds,  no  matter 
how  sound,  could  scarcely  hope  to  bring  as  much. 

Other  difTiculties  of  a  local  nature  impeded  the 
sale  of  the  Wisconsin  securities.  The  question  of  the 
constitutionality  of  the  law  authorizing  the  loan 
raised  the  issue  whether  the  bonds  would  be  binding 
against  the  State.  Quite  as  embarrassing  was  the 
evil  repute  of  Wisconsin  in  the  Eastern  money  mar- 
kets, the  consequence  of  frequent  attempts  by  her 
legislatures  to  relieve  her  railroad  farm  mortgagors 
from  the  payment  of  their  debts,  as  well  as  the  almost 
universal  repudiation  by  cities,  towns,  and  counties 
in  the  State  of  their  railroad  bond  obligations. ^ 

Governor  Randall  was  determined,  however,  to 
negotiate  the  loan.  To  remove  the  constitutional 
uncertainty  he  adopted  an  unusual  course.  On  June 
4,  1861  he  sent  to  the  Wisconsin  supreme  court  a 
communication  requesting  its  views  upon  this  point. ^ 
Ordinarily  a  law  court  will  carefully  refrain  from 
expressing  an  opinion  concerning  a  disputed  statute 
until  a  case  involving  it  is  brought  up  for  adjudica- 
tion. In  this  crisis,  however,  the  Wisconsin  supreme 
court  departed  from  the  precedent.  In  an  open 
letter  to  the  governor  it  declared  the  act  constitu- 

1  See  open  letter  of  State  Treasurer  S.  D.  Hastings  entitled  The  Specie 
and  Currency  Question  and  the  State  Treasury,  bound  with  Wisconsin 
Miscellaneous  Pamphlets,  X,  No.  17,  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Library; 
Wis.  State  Jour.,  May  30,  1865. 

^  Ibid.;  see  also  post,  chap.  ix. 

2  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  June  8,  1861. 


202  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

tionally  sound  and  pronounced  the  bonds  issued 
under  it  binding  contracts  with  the  State. ^  It  was 
not  so  easy  to  overcome  the  other  objections  to  the 
bonds,  however,  and  the  commissioners  at  length 
gave  up  the  attempt  to  negotiate  the  loan  in  the 
East. 

In  the  meantime  Governor  Randall  had  received 
from  Alexander  Mitchell,  the  great  Milwaukee  finan- 
cier, a  novel  suggestion.  He  proposed  that  the  war 
loan  be  made  to  answer  the  double  purpose  of  raising 
money  for  the  administration  and  protecting  the  cur- 
rency of  the  State;  that  the  bankers  of  Wisconsin  be 
permitted  to  purchase  the  bonds  upon  easy  terms, 
with  the  understanding  that  they  would  deposit 
them  at  once  in  the  office  of  the  bank  comptroller 
in  exchange  for  their  depreciated  Southern  securities. ^ 
The  plan  had  obvious  advantages,  and  the  loan 
commissioners  gave  it  favorable  consideration  when 
they  returned  from  their  fruitless  expedition  to  the 
East  in  the  summer  of  1861. 

Negotiations  between  the  State  authorities  and  a 
committee  composed  for  the  most  part  of  influential 
bankers  of  Milwaukee  were  soon  in  progress.  By  a 
strange  coincidence  the  first  formal  conference  took 
place  on  the  very  day  when  the  Milwaukeeans 
secretly  entered  into  their  resolution  to  repudiate 
their  convention  pledge;  the  last  meeting  occurred 
one  day  after  the  memorable  bank  riot.  It  was  under 
the  shadow  of  the  latter  event  that  an  agreement 
as  to  the  sale  of  the  bonds  was  eventually  concluded. 

1  Ibid. 

2  Ms.  letter  of  Alexander  Mitchell  to  Governor  Randall,  May  18,  1861, 
in  Wisconsin  Historical  Library. 


BANKING  203 

The  terms  of  the  compact  thus  entered  into  were 
favorable  to  the  bankers  of  the  State,  and  on  the 
whole  satisfactory  also  to  the  public.     The  bankers 
agreed  to  purchase  $800,000  of  the  Wisconsin  bonds, 
to  be  paid  for  nominally  at  par.     Seventy  per  cent 
of  the  purchase  price  was  to  be  paid  at  once,  of  which 
three-fifths  should  be  in  coin  or  New  York  exchange 
and  two-fifths  in  Wisconsin  par  currency.     The  re- 
maining 30  per  cent  should  be  paid  in  regular  install- 
ments within  fifteen  years.     The  State  was  to  allow 
interest  at  6  per  cent  not  only  upon  the  portion  of  the 
purchase   price    paid    down,    but   upon    that   which 
remained  to  be  paid.    The  bankers  were  to  deposit  the 
bonds  with  the  comptroller  in  place  of  their  depre- 
ciated securities  and  jointly  agree  to  maintain  at  par 
until  December  1  all  the  Wisconsin  paper  money  then 
current.^ 

Originally  the  amount  of  bonds  that  the  commis- 
sioners agreed  to  sell  upon  these  terms  was  only 
$650,000.  The  sum  was  increased  to  $800,000,  how- 
ever, upon  the  promise  of  the  bankers  to  takeup  and 
redeem  at  par  the  currency  of  the  ten  institutions 
rejected  from  the  guaranteed  list  a  few  days  before. ^ 
The  result  of  this  transaction  was  a  speedy  return 
of  financial  tranquillity.  Wisconsin  bonds  were 
substituted  for  southern  in  the  comptroller's  office 
as  rapidly  as  was  practicable,^  and  by  the  beginning 

1  The  terms  of  sale  were  severely  criticized  by  the  enemies  of  the  ad- 
ministration and  in  1862  were  made  the  subject  of  a  legislative  investiga- 
tion. See  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1862,  1361-1536;  Wisconsin  State  Treasurer, 
Reports,  1860-65;  Wis.  Weekly  State  Jour.,  July  9, 1861;  Wis.  State  Jour., 
May  23,  1865. 

2  Ibid. 

3  The  bonds  of  seceded  and  border  states  in  the  hands  of  the  bank 
comptroller  on  Jan.  1,  1862  amounted  to  $469,500,  somewhat  less  than 


204  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

of  September,  1861  the  securities  of  sixty  of  the 
seventy  current  banks  of  the  State  were  at  or  above 
par.^  The  bankers'  committee  with  the  aid  of  the 
merchants  of  Milwaukee  gathered  a  fund  of  $100,000, 
with  which  it  gradually  redeemed  the  currency  of 
the  ten  discredited  banks. ^  Unhappily  this  operated 
chiefly  to  the  advantage  of  "money  shavers,"  who 
had  purchased  the  notes  from  laborers  and  farmers 
at  merely  nominal  prices  when  the  panic  was  at  its 
worst.  It  has  been  estimated  that  the  people  of  Wis- 
consin lost  approximately  a  million  dollars  in  the 
financial  tangles  that  marked  the  spring  of  1861.^ 

The  history  of  Wisconsin  banking  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  Civil  War  was  highly  creditable,  due 
in  large  measure  to  the  influence  of  the  State  Bankers' 
Association.  When  this  body  assembled  in  Milwau- 
kee for  its  third  annual  convention  on  Sept.  19,  1861, 
most  of  the  financial  institutions  of  Wisconsin  for 
the  first  time  in  many  years  were  in  a  thoroughly 
sound  condition.  The  Association  felt  sufficiently 
confident  of  its  strength  to  adopt  a  resolution  urging 
every  bank  in  the  State  to  resume  specie  payments 
voluntarily  on  October  15,  a  month  and  a  half  before 
the  date  set  for  redemption  by  the  legislature.    As  a 

one-fifth  of  the  total  securities.  Of  this  amount  $198,500  was  in  bonds 
of  seceded  states  and  the  remainder  in  bonds  of  Missouri  and  Kentucky. 

1  While  the  crisis  of  1861  was  at  its  height  the  bank  comptroller  was 
directed  to  publish  in  the  Wisconsin  State  Journal  at  the  beginning  of  each 
month  a  statement  showing  the  condition  of  all  the  banks  in  the  State. 
From  these  statements,  which  continued  to  appear  until  Feb.  1,  1869,  the 
value  of  securities  has  been  compiled. 

2  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1861,  33;  Milwaukee  Sen- 
tinel, July  1  and  2,  1861;  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  July  1  and  2,  1861;  Wis. 
Bank  Comptroller,  Report,  1861,  8;  Conard,  History  of  Milwaukee,  271. 

» Estimate  of  State  Treasurer  S.  D.  Hastings  in  Specie  and  Currency 
Question  and  the  State  Treasury. 


BANKING  205 

measure  of  precaution  it  decided  to  discountenance 
for  the  time  being  the  organization  of  any  new  banks 
and  to  permit  established  institutions  to  increase 
their  circulation  only  by  special  consent  of  its  board 
of  directors.^  In  commenting  upon  this  excellent 
program  of  financial  regulation  the  Milwaukee  Sen- 
tinel on  September  25  declared:  "Although  an  act 
of  the  legislature  exempts  the  banks  from  the  obli- 
gation of  redemption  until  Dec.  1st,  here  we  have 
exchange  actually  down  to  par,  and  the  money 
entering  as  freely  into  all  business  transactions  of 
the  State  as  if  the  banks  redeemed  in  coin.  A  parallel 
for  this  we  do  not  think  can  be  found  in  the  whole 
financial  history  of  the  West." 

It  is  no  easy  matter  for  banks  to  return  to  a  normal 
basis  of  redeeming  their  paper  money  after  a  pro- 
longed period  of  freedom  from  that  obligation.  The 
public  is  impatient;  as  soon  as  the  law  has  restored 
the  right  to  exchange  suspected  notes  for  specie, 
people  rush  to  do  so.  Upon  the  day  set  for  redemp- 
tion the  doors  of  the  banks  are  besieged  by  thousands 
of  clamorous  bill  holders  demanding  gold  or  its 
equivalent  for  their  paper.  Unless  the  financial 
institutions  are  well  prepared  the  stress  is  likely  to 
force  them  into  bankruptcy. 

Such  was  the  danger  that  on  Dec.  1,  1861  awaited 
the  bankers  of  Wisconsin.  They  might  have  avoided 
it  had  they  followed  the  recommendation  of  the 
Association  to  return  voluntarily  to  redemption. 
They  had  failed  to  make  the  effort,  however,  and  the 
opportunity  had  passed.  It  became  apparent,  more- 
over, as  the  time  for  resumption  approached,  that 
1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Sept.  21,  1861. 


206  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

some  ten  or  a  dozen  banks  were  either  indisposed  or 
unable  to  prepare  themselves  properly  for  the  crisis. 
Early  in  November,  as  a  result,  a  spirit  of  nervous 
uncertainty  again  manifested  itself  in  Wisconsin. 

In  Milwaukee  on  November  11  a  rumor  spread 
like  wildfire  that  ten  banks  were  about  to  be  repudi- 
ated by  the  other  institutions  of  the  State.  The  report 
was  entirely  unfounded,  originating  in  an  unsigned 
circular  distributed  about  the  city  apparently  by 
unscrupulous  speculators  who  hoped  to  buy  good 
money  at  panic  prices.  Intense  excitement  among  the 
laboring  population  of  Milwaukee  resulted,  which 
increased  when  the  circular  received  publication  in 
the  Chicago  Tribune  under  the  caption  "More 
Trouble  with  Wisconsin  Stumptail."^  It  at  length 
became  necessary  to  summon  for  counsel  a  special 
convention  of  the  Bankers'  Association. 

This  body  proceeded  to  its  task  with  character- 
istic vigor.  Ignoring  the  Milwaukee  excitement,  it 
set  itself  to  the  important  problem  of  preparing  the 
State  banks  for  the  fateful  day  of  resumption.  To  a 
committee  of  its  members  it  delegated  full  powers  to 
wind  up  whatever  banks  refused  to  make  necessary 
provision  for  the  impending  crisis.  The  circulating 
currency  of  such  institutions  was  at  once  to  be  re- 
tired, dollar  for  dollar,  and  whatever  deficiency  or 
expense  arose  in  carrying  out  this  program  was 
to  be  met  from  the  funds  of  the  Association  or  the 

1  Chicago  Tribune,  Nov.  13,  1861.  The  Chicago  newspapers  were  ever 
ready  to  publish  damaging  reports  concerning  Wisconsin  currency  and 
Milwaukee  newspapers  as  ready  to  retaliate  in  kind.  Each  of  these  cities 
was  wont  to  ascribe  its  monetary  difficulties  to  the  machinations  of  the 
other.  Illinois  suffered  more  severely  than  Wisconsin  during  the  monetary 
crisis  of  1861,  89  of  her  110  banks  going  to  the  wall. 


BANKING  207 

proceeds  of  an  assessment  levied  upon  every  bank 
in  the  State. ^  Of  banking  such  as  this  even  the  con- 
servative East  might  well  have  been  proud.  For  a 
frontier  state  like  Wisconsin  it  was  a  truly  remark- 
able achievement. 

No  less  creditable  was  the  manner  in  which  the 
program  was  carried  into  operation.  By  an  arrange- 
ment among  the  bankers  of  the  State  the  notes  of 
delinquent  institutions  were  sorted  out  as  fast  as 
they  came  in  and  sent  to  the  committee  of  the  Asso- 
ciation in  Milwaukee.  Here  they  were  locked  up, 
the  committee  issuing  in  exchange  certificates  of  de- 
posit bearing  interest  at  7  per  cent.  Four  hundred 
thousand  dollars  of  such  money,  more  than  one- 
sixth  of  all  the  current  bank  notes  of  Wisconsin, 
was  thus  safely  stored  away  when  the  day  of  resump- 
tion came. 2 

The  runs  on  banks,  which  accompanied  resumption, 
were  severe,  in  some  instances,  embarrassing.  Their 
force  was  broken,  however,  by  an  agreement  among 
the  members  of  the  Association  not  to  assort  against 
each  other  until  the  crisis  was  over.^  This  action  and 
the  careful  preparation  of  the  preceding  weeks 
enabled  every  bank  in  the  State  to  weather  the  storm 
with  success.  The  year  closed  with  public  confidence 
in  Wisconsin  currency  once  more  restored. 

The  cost  of  thus  establishing  the  monetary  system 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Nov.  18,  1861. 

"^  Ibid.,  Nov.  25  and  Dec.  15,  1861;  J.  P.  McGregor,  "Banking  in  Wis- 
consin," in  History  of  Dodge  County,  Wisconsin,  196;  Conard,  History  of 
Milwaukee,  272.  As  soon  as  the  crisis  was  over  the  Bankers'  Association 
forced  $200,000  of  these  doubtful  notes  into  retirement. 

3  The  danger  of  war  with  England  at  this  time  over  the  "Trent"  affair 
was  one  factor  that  prolonged  the  crisis. 


208  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

of  the  State  upon  a  sound  basis  had  been  very  heavy. 
Of  the  110  banks  in  good  standing  at  the  beginning 
of  the  year  forty  had  failed,  four  were  in  process  of 
winding  up  by  the  Bankers'  Association,  and  one 
had  voluntarily  surrendered  its  charter.  Of  the 
$4,580,832  bank  notes  current  on  January  1  there 
remained  in  circulation  at  the  close  of  the  year  but 
$1,590,691.^  As  a  result  of  this  collapse  business 
in  Wisconsin,  already  distracted  by  the  outbreak  of 
the  Civil  War,  received  a  blow  from  which  it  did  not 
recover  for  almost  two  years. 

The  suffering  which  these  difTiculties  imposed  upon 
the  people  of  Wisconsin  stirred  into  new  flame  an 
old  though  dying  prejudice  against  banks.  Wher- 
ever losses  had  been  severe,  popular  resentment  found 
expression  in  largely  attended  anti-bank  and  hard- 
money  meetings.  In  some  localities  there  was  agita- 
tion for  an  unconditional  repeal  of  the  entire  banking 
law.  The  lead  region  gave  vent  to  its  dissatisfaction 
by  actions  as  well  as  words.  In  the  summer  of  1861 
its  miners,  farmers,  and  traders  agreed  no  longer  to 
accept  in  payment  of  their  products  anything  but 
actual  specie.  During  the  remainder  of  the  year 
while  the  State  as  a  whole  fretted  and  fumed  over 
paper  money,  this  mining  community  transacted  its 
business  almost  entirely  upon  a  gold  basis. ^ 

'  The  statistics  for  the  beginning  of  1861  are  from  Governor  Randall's 
annual  message  in  Wis.  Mess,  and  Docs.,  1861,  6-7;  those  for  the  end  of 
1861  are  from  the  monthly  statement  of  the  bank  comptroller  in  Wis. 
State  Jour.,  Jan.  3,  1862.  The  total  par  currency  of  Wisconsin  on  Dec. 
31,  1861  was  $1,731,587,  which  included  the  issue  of  several  banks  estab- 
lished during  the  year. 

''Ibid.,  June  4,  1861;  Correspondence  from  May  23  to  July  10,  1861  in 
the  Cyrus  Woodman  Letter-Press  Manuscripts,  Vol.  II,  in  the  Wisconsin 
Historical  Library. 


BANKING  209 

The  crash  of  1861  was  a  blessing  to  Wisconsin  in 
the  sense  that  it  forced  to  immediate  correction  the 
manifold  weaknesses  in  the  currency  code.  By  an 
almost  unanimous  referendum  in  the  fall  of  1861  a 
statute  was  adopted  which  assured  for  the  future 
proper  restrictions  upon  banks  of  issue.  It  provided 
that  no  bonds  except  those  of  the  state  of  Wisconsin 
or  the  national  government  should  thenceforth  be 
received  as  security  for  paper  money.  Each  bank  was 
required  to  have  in  addition  to  its  securities  a  bona 
fide  cash  capital  of  at  least  $15,000.  The  volume  of 
currency  which  any  institution  might  issue  was 
rigidly  limited  to  three  times  the  amount  of  its  capital 
actually  paid  in.  Every  bank  in  the  State  was  re- 
quired to  maintain  at  Milwaukee  or  Madison  an 
agent  authorized  at  all  times  to  redeem  its  paper.^ 
Thus  in  law  as  well  as  in  practice  Wisconsin  banking 
was  established  upon  firm  ground. 

A  number  of  irresponsible  bankers  in  the  State 
rebelled  against  what  they  regarded  as  the  unneces- 
sarily stringent  requirements  of  the  new  law.  In 
the  legislative  session  of  1862  they  attempted  to 
secure  once  more  the  suspension  of  specie  payments. 
In  justification  of  their  stand  they  pointed  to  the 
fact  that  New  York  banks  had  ceased  to  redeem  late 
in  1861,  that  the  Federal  government  had  immediate- 
ly followed  suit,  and  that  suspension  had  thereafter 
become  general  throughout  the  North.  They  pro- 
ceeded to  draw  up  and  introduce  into  the  legislature 
a  bill,  ingeniously  worded  so  as  to  accomplish  their 

iThe  law  was  enacted  on  April  13,  1861,  amended  in  the  extra  session 
of  1861,  and  submitted  to  the  people  of  the  State  for  approval  at  the  regu- 
lar November  election.    See  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1861,  chap.  242. 

14 


210  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

ends  without  openly  violating  the  State  constitution. 
The  measure  as  framed  permitted  bankers  to  redeem 
their  notes  in  drafts  on  the  protested  banks  of  New 
York  City;  allowed  them  one  year  within  which  to 
answer  complaints  of  bill  holders;  prohibited  notaries 
public  from  protesting  State  currency;  and  impeded 
in  other  ways,  well  known  to  any  representative  stay 
law  of  the  western  frontier,  the  proper  enforcement 
of  the  banking  code.^  The  bill  was  passed  in  the 
Senate  despite  an  opinion  of  the  attorney-general 
of  the  State  pronouncing  it  unconstitutional. ^  In  the 
Assembly,  however,  where  the  experiences  of  the 
preceding  year  were  not  yet  forgotten,  it  was  de- 
cisively defeated. 

During  1862  State  authorities  carefully  enforced 
the  new  monetary  code,  and  the  Bankers'  Associa- 
tion continued  to  exert  its  influence  against  undue 
expansion.  The  volume  of  State  circulation  increased 
only  $697,000,  the  total  being  still  at  the  end  of  the 
year  $2,000,000  short  of  the  amount  current  on  Jan. 
1,  1860.^  "Indeed,"  complained  the  commercial 
editor  of  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel  early  in  1862,  "if 
it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  large  amounts  of  Eastern 
and  Canadian  capital  have  been  invested  here  in  the 
purchase  of  produce  and  provisions,  business  would 
be  virtually  suspended.  As  it  is,  our  markets  are  not 
unfrequently  brought  to  a  stand  through  the  difficulty 

1  The  bill  is  printed  and  vigorously  denounced  in  a  minority  report  of 
the  Assembly  committee  on  banking  in  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1862,  234-40. 
In  its  objects  and  methods  the  measure  was  strikingly  similar  to  the  farm- 
mortgage  stay  laws  which  at  this  time  were  receiving  the  attention  of  the 
W' isconsin  supreme  court.    See  also  ibid.,  585-87. 

^  For  the  opinion  of  the  attorney-general  see  ibid. 

3  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Jan.  5,  1863. 


BANKING  211 

of  raising  money  even  on  the  best  kind  of  business 


"1 


paper. 

In  tlie  autumn  of  1862  the  nation  recovered  from 
the  industrial  prostration  of  1861,  and  during  the 
following  year  set  out  upon  an  era  of  expansion  such 
as  it  had  never  seen  before.  New  enterprises  of  every 
kind  sprang  into  vigorous  life;  old  ones  became 
infused  with  new  energy.  Increasing  business  de- 
manded a  growing  currency,  and  State  banks  through- 
out the  North  eagerly  responded  to  the  opportunity. 
Under  similar  circumstances  in  the  preceding  decade 
wildcat  inflation  had  gained  an  easy  entrance  into 
Wisconsin.  That  the  same  conditions  did  not  prevail 
in  1863  was  due  largely  to  the  influence  of  the  State 
Bankers'   Association. 

This  organization  on  Feb.  3,  1863  outlined  a 
monetary  program  for  the  State  that  constituted  a 
remarkable  departure  in  western  banking.^  Reflecting 
a  spirit  of  conservatism  and  a  willingness  to  cooperate 
with  legal  authorities,  it  was  in  striking  contrast  to 
the  monetary  heresies  and  impatience  with  govern- 
ment restraint  that  characterized  most  frontier  finance 
at  this  time.  The  Association  agreed  to  reject  the 
notes  of  any  bank  thenceforth  established  in  the 
State  without  its  consent.  It  forbade  existing  insti- 
tutions to  add  to  their  circulation  except  by  permis- 
sion of  its  board  of  directors.  Those  that  attempted 
to  violate  this  provision  were  at  once  to  be  compelled 
to  wind  up  their  affairs.  The  directors  of  the  Asso- 
ciation were  ordered  to  scrutinize  carefully  the  con- 
dition and  character  of  all  banks  in  the  State,  and  if 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  27,  1862. 
« Ibid.,  Feb.  5,  1863. 


212  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

any  were  found  to  be  so  unstable  as  to  constitute  a 
menace  to  the  public  in  time  of  financial  trouble  they 
were  to  be  wound  up  without  delay.  If  there  were  still 
in  the  State  any  institutions  that  had  no  regular 
office  or  that  transacted  no  local  business,  but  were 
exclusively  banks  of  circulation,  they  were  to  be 
dealt  with  summarily.  Whenever  it  was  deemed 
advisable  for  any  of  these  reasons  to  close  a  bank 
the  members  of  the  Association  were  to  be  informed, 
and  they  were  to  assort  and  send  to  Milwaukee  what- 
ever paper  money  of  the  institution  they  received,  in  or- 
der that  it  might  be  presented  for  protest  all  at  once. 

This  vigorous  program  was  carefully  enforced,  and 
Wisconsin  circulation  increased  but  $131,495  during 
the  entire  year  1863.^  In  the  meantime  the  United 
States  government,  compelled  by  its  necessities  to 
issue  enormous  quantities  of  greenbacks,  supplied 
trade  with  all  the  money  needed  for  legitimate  ex- 
pansion. Thus  on  the  one  hand  industry  advanced 
unrestricted,  and  on  the  other  the  character  of  Wis- 
consin's circulation  was  maintained  at  a  high  level. 

In  the  same  month  that  the  Wisconsin  Bankers' 
Association  adopted  its  restrictive  currency  program 
Congress  enacted  the  National  Banking  Law.^  This 
statute  was  one  of  the  most  notable  accomplishments 
resulting  from  the  Civil  War.  Undoubtedly  it  con- 
stituted the  greatest  monetary  reform  that  the  country 
had  seen  since  the  days  of  the  United  States  Bank.    It 

1  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Jan.  6,  1864. 

*U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large,  37  Cong.,  3  sess.,  chap.  58,  Feb.  25,  1863; 
ibid.,  38  Cong.,  1  sess.,  chap.  106,  June  3,  1864.  Compare  this  account 
with  that  of  Fite,  Social  and  Industrial  Conditions,  115-17,  in  which  differ- 
ent conclusions  are  reached.  See  also  U.  S.  Secretary  of  Treasury,  Report, 
1864,  46-55. 


BANKING  213 

substituted  a  central  authority,  a  uniform  security,  and 
a  fixed  type  of  national  bank  note  for  the  multitudinous 
species  of  easily  counterfeited  and  but  locally  accepted 
state  notes,  the  widely  varying  forms  of  state  security, 
and  the  many  conflicting  state  jurisdictions.  It  cor- 
rected every  prominent  evil  of  the  old  state  currency 
system  from  which  the  West,  and  to  a  less  extent  the 
East,  had  sufTered  so  long  and  so  grievously. 

Important  though  this  measure  was,  for  two  years 
it  attracted  almost  no  notice  in  Wisconsin.  Popular 
attention  was  directed  to  southern  battle-fields; 
business  men  already  had  a  satisfactory  national 
currency  in  the  Federal  greenbacks;  and  confidence 
in  the  paper  money  of  the  State  had  been  restored. 
Moreover,  the  law  was  merely  permissive.  It  did 
not  undertake  to  force  bankers  issuing  currency 
under  state  charters  to  come  within  its  provisions, 
and  the  inducements  it  held  out  proved  insufficient 
to  win  voluntary  converts  in  large  numbers  either 
in  Wisconsin  or  in  other  parts  of  the  Union.  Even 
when,  on  June  30,  1864,  Congress  inaugurated  a 
policy  of  mild  favoritism  to  national  banks^  it  won 
few  proselytes.  By  the  end  of  1864  only  fifteen  Wis- 
consin institutions  had  availed  themselves  of  the 
privilege  of  national  incorporation. ^ 

If  Wisconsin  bankers  were  unusually  reluctant  to 
transfer  their  allegiance  to  the  national  government 
it  was  because  they  labored  under  special  difficulties. 
The  Federal  law  required  institutions  seeking  national 
charters  to  deposit  United  States  bonds  exclusively 
as    security    for    circulation.       Wisconsin    bankers, 

1  U.  S.  statutes  at  Large,  38  Cong.,  1  sess.,  chap.  173.  sec.  110,  June  30, 1864. 
*  U.  S.  Secretary  of  Treasury,  Report,  1864,  46. 


214  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

unfortunately,  were  loaded  down  with  the  securities  of 
their  own  State,  purchased  during  the  crisis  of  1861. 
These  they  could  not  dispose  of  except  at  a  heavy  loss. 
The  same  objections  which  had  prevented  their  sale  in 
the  open  market  in  1861  still  miUtated  against  them. 
The  bankers  of  the  State,  with  their  means  tied  up  in 
unsalable  bonds,  were  thus  unable,  even  had  they  de- 
sired, to  fulfill  the  demands  of  Federal  incorporation. 

Congress  was  determined,  however,  to  establish 
the  national  banking  system.  On  Mar.  3,  1865  it 
passed  a  law  so  drastic  in  its  discrimination  against 
the  currency  of  state  banks  as  practically  to  drive 
the  latter  out  of  existence.^  Wisconsin  bankers  were 
thereby  left  without  a  choice.  To  retire  their  circu- 
lation, dispose  of  their  securities  upon  the  best  terms 
obtainable,  and  reorganize  under  national  charters 
was  the  only  course  left  open  to  them. 

This  situation  was  fraught  with  peril  for  bill 
holders  as  well  as  bankers  of  the  State.  It  was  hkely 
that  weak  institutions,  crippled  by  the  losses  they 
would  suffer  in  disposing  of  their  Wisconsin  securities 
in  an  unfavorable  market,  would  be  unable  to  redeem 
their  paper  money,  and  thus  would  subject  the  people 
of  the  State  to  the  same  bitter  experiences  that  had 
marked  the  beginning  of  the  war.  To  further  compli- 
cate the  difficulty,  as  the  result  of  the  near  approach 
of  peace  the  country  was  already  in  a  state  of  de- 
pression, with  the  stock  and  bond  market  on  the 
verge  of  actual  panic. 

Under  such  circumstances  the  mere  fear  of  a 
crisis  was  sufficient  to  precipitate  one.     A  few  days 

1  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large,  38  Cong.,  2  sess.,  chap.  78,  sees.  6  and  7,  Mar. 
3,  1865. 


BANKING  215 

after  the  Federal  tax  measure  was  passed,  two  Mil- 
waukee banks,  which  had  already  secured  national 
charters,  announced  to  their  city  associates  their 
determination  no  longer  to  receive  Wisconsin  cur- 
rency except  upon  special  conditions.  The  nine 
remaining  city  banks,  after  a  day's  hesitation,  felt 
compelled  to  adopt  the  same  course.  On  March  10 
they  made  public  a  resolution  expressing  their  hope 
that  the  legislature  then  in  session  would  provide  for 
the  safety  of  the  State  bonds,  but  declared  themselves 
unable  thenceforth  to  accept  any  currency  except 
Federal  greenbacks  and  national  bank  notes. ^  At 
once  a  sharp  financial  panic  swept  over  the  State. 
The  notes  of  a  number  of  banks  ceased  for  a  time  to 
circulate,  while  even  the  best  were  sacrificed  to 
brokers  at  a  discount  of  25  to  40  per  cent. 

The  loss  again  fell  largely  upon  the  poorer  classes 
whose  needs  or  fears  led  them  to  dispose  of  their 
currency  to  "rag  speculators"  at  ruinous  prices. ^ 
on  March  13  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel  reported: 
"The  laboring  classes,  who  are  not  posted  in  such 
matters,  and  who  hold  small  amounts  which  enter 
into  their  daily  necessities,  have  been  thronging  the 
banks  and  broker  shops,  since  the  notice,  changing 
and  disposing  of  everything  bearing  the  semblance 
of  Wisconsin  money,  at  any  rate  which  the  brokers 
choose  to  demand.     Advice  has  been  tendered  them 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Mar.  10,  1865. 

-  See  proclamation  of  Mayor  Kirby  of  Milwaukee  in  ibid..  Mar.  13, 
1865,  warning  the  public  against  selling  their  currency  to  brokers  and 
money  sharpers.  See  also  Appleton  Crescent,  Mar.  18,  1865;  La  Crosse 
Democrat,  Mar.  13,  1865;  Oshkosh  Northwestern,  Mar.  16,  1865;  Wis. 
State  Jour.,  Mar.  21,  1865;  Green  Bay  Advocate,  Mar.  16,  1865;  Milwaukee 
Sentinel,  Mar.  11  to  Mar.  25,  1865. 


216  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

from  every  quarter  to  prevent  such  sacrifices,  but 
in  vain."  "We  have  seen,  for  several  days,  in  the 
banks  of  the  city,"  observed  the  Green  Bay  Advocate 
on  March  16,  "crowds  of  poor  men  and  women 
anxiously  pressing  up  to  the  counters  to  get  some- 
thing in  exchange  for  their  little  rolls  of  Wisconsin 
money,  which  they  had  been  hoarding  up  as  safe,  and 
as  some  believed  safer  than  greenbacks."  The 
Milwaukee  Sentinel  found  a  touch  of  grim  humor  in 
the  situation:  "As  the  most  of  our  retail  merchants 
took  the  currency  at  par,  it  was  amusing  to  see  the 
raids  upon  the  dry  goods  dealers  by  the  ladies  on 
Saturday  afternoon.  Husbands  were  never  half  so 
willing  to  furnish  their  wives  with  pocket  money, 
for  almost  all  had  some  few  bank  notes  in  their 
pockets,  which  knew  not  whether  their  redeemer 
liveth.  Therefore,  the  way  the  silks  and  pophns, 
jaconets  and  alpacas,  delaines  and  organdies,  gaiters 
and  balmorals  had  to  come  down  from  the  shelves 
was  a  caution."^  The  excitement  ran  its  course  in 
about  a  week,  after  which  calmer  counsel  prevailed 
and  conditions  gradually  became  normal. 

The  panic,  according  to  the  press  of  Wisconsin, 
was  a  wholly  unnecessary  calamity.  The  bankers  of 
Milwaukee  who  had  precipitated  it  were  denounced 
by  the  entire  State. ^  They  on  their  part  issued  a 
pubhc  statement  shifting  all  responsibiUty  upon  the 
two  national  institutions  of  the  city.^     The  latter 

» Ibid.,  Mar.  14,  1865. 

2  It  was  charged  in  some  quarters,  though  apparently  without  founda- 
tion, that  the  Milwaukee  bankers  had  deliberately  brought  about  the 
panic  in  order  to  force  favorable  action  on  the  so-called  Insurance  Act 
then  under  consideration  by  the  legislature.    See  post,  218. 

» Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Mar.  14,  1865. 


BANKING  217 

shortly  after  came  in  for  a  severe  arraignment  at 
the  hands  of  the  Bankers'  Association.^  It  was  recog- 
nized, however,  that  unless  the  legislature  at  once 
safeguarded  the  bonds  of  the  State  and  the  currency 
predicated  upon  them  a  crisis  of  even  larger  propor- 
tions might  at  any  moment  arise. 

The  legislature  moved  promptly  and  effectively. 
On  March  16,  while  excitement  was  still  at  a  high 
pitch,  it  adopted  a  sweeping  resolution  pledging  the 
people  of  Wisconsin  to  sustain  their  bonds  unim- 
paired. As  for  the  currency,  it  promised  that  pro- 
vision would  shortly  be  made  to  maintain  it  safe 
from  any  loss.  "We  will  not  hesitate,  if  necessary," 
declared  the  legislators,  "to  impose  such  tax  or  taxes 
for  that  object  as  shall  speedily  result  in  absorbing 
that  currency,  and  retiring  all  the  State  bonds  that 
are  likely  to  be  thrown  upon  the  market. "^ 

This  vigorous  legislative  pledge  was  wholly  ful- 
filled. Within  a  few  weeks  after  it  was  adopted  a 
law  was  enacted  empowering  the  State  treasurer  to 
accept  at  par  any  Wisconsin  bank  notes  that  had 
been  current  prior  to  the  panic  and  to  issue  there- 
for certificates  of  deposit  bearing  interest  for  the 
remainder  of  the  year  at  7  per  cent.  The  same  official 
was  authorized  to  receive  and  retire  the  currency  of 
any  Wisconsin  bank  that  failed  to  redeem  it,  cancel- 
ing on  the  part  of  the  State  the  bonds  that  the  comp- 
troller held  as  security.^ 

1  Ibid.,  Mar.  18,  1865. 

2  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1865,  Joint  Resolution,  No.  7,  688. 

'  Ibid.,  chap.  282.  The  act  was  severely  criticized  by  the  opponents  of 
the  administration.  Under  its  provisions  twenty-one  banks  assigned  their 
bonds  to  the  state  treasurer  and  had  their  circulation,  amounting  to 
about  $600,000,  retired  by  him.    According  to  the  bank  comptroller  these 


218  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Quite  as  elTective  as  this  was  the  program  adopted 
for  protecting  the  State  bonds.  It  consisted  in  creat- 
ing a  market  wherein  the  latter  could  be  sold  at  par. 
This  had  already  been  accomplished  in  part  by  the 
legislature  of  1864,  which  had  directed  the  Commis- 
sioners of  School  and  University  Lands  to  invest  the 
trust  funds  of  the  State  in  such  securities.^  It  was 
supplemented  on  April  11,  1865  by  a  statute  directing 
all  insurance  companies  in  Wisconsin  to  deposit  with  the 
State  treasurer  as  surety  State  bonds  to  an  amount  cor- 
responding to  their  total  business  for  the  previous  year.^ 

With  Wisconsin  bonds  and  currency  thus  carefully 
safeguarded  the  conversion  of  State  into  national 
banking  institutions  proceeded  rapidly  and  easily. 
Indeed,  by  the  end  of  1865  only  nineteen  banks 
still  did  business  under  Wisconsin  charters.^  By  1866 
the  amount  of  State  currency  in  circulation  was  so 
small  that  the  banks  were  encouraged  by  the  legis- 
lature to  complete  its  retirement,^  and,  this  having 

banks  would  have  been  wound  up  but  for  this  act,  and  their  circulation 
redeemed  at  considerably  less  than  par.  See  Wis.  Bank  Comptroller,  Re- 
port, 1869,  5-6. 

1  Id.,  1864,  chap.  217.  Ultimately  the  greater  part  of  the  State  bonds 
were  absorbed  by  the  Commissioners  of  School  and  University  Lands. 

=  Id.,  1865,  chap.  320.  Alexander  Mitchell  is  credited  with  having  sug- 
gested the  measure.  The  sixty-six  insurance  companies  in  the  State  vig- 
orously fought  its  passage,  protesting  that  it  had  no  other  object  than  to 
unload  upon  them  bonds  that  had  been  purchased  below  par  and  were 
still  worth  less  than  par  in  the  open  market.  Their  position  appears  to 
have  been  well  taken.  Eventually  thirty-one  complied  with  the  law,  de- 
positing Wisconsin  bonds  to  the  amount  of  $366,000.  The  remainder 
gave  up  their  business  in  the  State.  In  1866,  when  the  banking  crisis  was 
over,  the  measure  was  repealed.  See  letter  of  S.  D.  Hastings  in  Wis. 
State  Jour.,  May  22,  1865;  also  ibid..  Mar.  30  and  31,  and  April  4,  1865. 

3  Ibid.,  Jan.  2,  1866. 

^  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1866,  chap.  143.  After  1867  the  State  banks  remain- 
ing in  operation  devoted  themselves  exclusively  to  the  business  of  loans 
and  discounts. 


BANKING  219 

shortly  been  accomplished,  in  1868  the  office  of  bank 
comptroller  was  abohshed. 

Thus  came  to  an  end  the  first  era  in  the  history  of 
Wisconsin  banking.  The  experiences  of  the  State 
during  that  period  had  been  unusual.  From  1852, 
when  the  banking  code  was  adopted,  until  the  year 
of  southern  secession  the  bill  holders  of  the  Badger 
banks  had  not  suffered  a  dollar  of  direct  loss.  Wildcat 
practices  had,  however,  undermined  the  system, 
leading  to  its  immediate  collapse  upon  the  outbreak 
of  the  Civil  War.  For  a  time  during  the  summer  of 
1861  utter  confusion  prevailed,  in  which  bankers  and 
public  suffered  alike.  The  general  derangement, 
however,  gave  to  the  Wisconsin  Bankers'  Association 
an  opportunity  to  build  up  and  extend  its  power,  and 
during  the  critical  years  of  the  war  this  organization 
exerted  in  monetary  matters  a  potent  influence  for 
intelligent  conservatism.  Finally,  with  the  close  of 
the  war  came  to  an  abrupt  end  the  interesting  story 
of  the  early  experiment  of  Wisconsin  with  State 
currency,  and  her  entrance  upon  the  Federal  system 
which  has  persisted  to  the  present  day. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
TRADE 

The  merchants  of  Wisconsin  were  by  no  means 
content  to  rest  from  their  labors  when  they  had 
gathered  for  export  the  surplus  products  of  the 
granaries,  lead  mines,  and  pine  forests  of  the  region 
west  of  Lake  Michigan.  Pioneers  of  whatever  voca- 
tion needed  groceries,  clothing,  hardware,  machinery, 
and  the  thousand  and  one  commodities  that  enter 
into  a  general  retail  and  jobbing  trade.  To  distribute 
among  western  consumers  the  merchandise  purchased 
in  the  East  or  manufactured  at  home  was  an  in- 
dustry in  itself.  It  gave  employment  to  every  city 
and  village  in  the  State. 

Foremost  among  the  wholesale  and  jobbing  centers 
of  Wisconsin  was  Milwaukee.  Favored  by  excellent 
railroad  connections,  her  markets  extended  not  only 
over  Wisconsin  but  Minnesota,  northern  Iowa,  and 
northern  Illinois.  Wherever  she  drew  her  exports  she 
also  sold  her  merchandise.  Thousands  of  westward- 
bound  immigrants  carried  her  wares  with  them. 
During  the  sixties  and  seventies  she  was  one  of  the 
greatest  outfitting  centers  in  the  Northwest. 

Not  only  Milwaukee  but  every  lake  port,  railroad 
center,  river  town,  and  pinery  hamlet  in  the  State 
in  its  relations  with  producers  was  as  eager  to  sell 
as  to  buy.  Because  of  lack  of  transportation  facilities 
few  of  them  possessed  more  than  a  local  trade.   Green 

[  220  ] 


TRADE  221 

Bay  enjoyed  a  lucrative  commerce  by  wagon  with 
a  wide  territory,  including  the  Lake  Superior  mineral 
region  and  pinery  districts  as  far  west  as  the  Wiscon- 
sin River.  She  attained  also  a  considerable  local 
prominence  as  an  immigrant  outfitting  center  for 
northeastern  Wisconsin.  Eau  Claire,  at  the  head  of 
navigation  on  the  Chippewa  River,  was  a  well- 
known  lumber-supply  town.  La  Crosse  during  the 
later  sixties  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  steam- 
boat entrepots  on  the  upper  Mississippi,  and  as  an 
immigrant  station  for  northwestern  Wisconsin  and 
eastern  Minnesota  occupied  a  position  much  hke 
that  of  Green  Bay  for  northeastern  Wisconsin. 
Similarly,  as  a  commissary  for  the  pineries  of  the 
Black  River,  La  Crosse  followed  in  the  footsteps  of 
Eau  Claire.  Racine  and  Kenosha,  having  railroad 
connections  with  the  interior,  enjoyed  something  of 
a  jobbing  trade  in  southern  Wisconsin  and  northern 
Illinois.  The  reach  of  all  of  these  cities,  however,  was 
small  compared  with  that  of  the  State  metropolis. 

The  extensive  trade  of  interior  Wisconsin,  Minne- 
sota, and  northern  Iowa  was  a  prize  that  brought 
Milwaukee  into  keen  competition  with  Chicago,  St. 
Louis,  and  Dubuque.  It  led  also  to  vigorous  rivalry 
with  the  great  commercial  centers  of  the  East. 
Country  merchants  at  this  time  still  clung  to  some 
extent  to  the  policy  of  making  annual  pilgrimages  to 
the  seaboard  to  lay  in  their  season's  stock  of  goods, 
a  practice  vigorously  assailed  by  jobbers  in  the  West. 
Thus  on  every  hand  were  fought  the  peaceful  skir- 
mishes and  battles  of  trade.  Milwaukee  modestly  laid 
claim  to  affording  interior  purchasers  as  large  a 
choice  of  merchandise  and  as  liberal  terms  of  payment 


222  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

as  any  wholesale  center  in  the  entire  country,  and 
her  board  of  trade  in  1863  boasted  that  three-fourths 
of  all  the  goods  consumed  in  the  region  west  and 
northwest  of  her  passed  through  her  jobbing  houses.^ 

The  panic  of  1857  fairly  overwhelmed  Wisconsin 
traders  and  merchants.  During  the  prosperous  years 
preceding  it  they  had  been  more  than  ordinarily 
reckless  in  extending  credits  and  assuming  liabilities. 
The  crash  caught  them  wholly  off  their  guard.  A 
large  number  failed  outright;  hundreds  of  others 
warded  off  bankruptcy  only  because  of  the  for- 
bearance of  creditors.  Universal  depression  followed 
the  year  of  crisis,  during  which  enterprise  of  almost 
every  description  came  to  a  halt. 

Not  only  was  business  prostration  exceedingly 
acute  in  Wisconsin  but  it  endured  longer  than  in 
other  parts  of  the  country.  A  succession  of  poor  crops 
followed  the  fateful  autumn  of  1857.  Farmers, 
lumbermen,  and  miners  were  quite  unable  to  buy 
supplies.  Some  purchased  but  neglected  to  meet  their 
bills,  and  merchants  as  a  result  sank  ever  deeper  into 
the  mire  of  indebtedness.  Although  commercial 
failures  in  the  North  as  a  whole  decreased  after  1857, 
in  Wisconsin  they  became  more  numerous.  The  total 
Habilities  of  bankrupts  for  the  entire  North  sank 
from  $265,810,000  in  1857  to  $73,600,000  in  1858. 
In  Wisconsin,  on  the  contrary,  they  rose  from  $1,- 
625,000  in  1857  to  $2,750,000  in  1858.2  In  1859  they 
fell  to  $1,655,000,  but  in  1860  as  a  result  of  banking 

1  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1863,  4. 

2  These  figures  are  from  R.  G.  Dun  &  Company's  Annual  Circular  pub- 
lished in  the  leading  daily  papers  of  the  country  at  the  beginning  of  each 
year.  See  New  York  Herald,  Jan.  6,  1860,  Jan.  1,  1863,  and  Jan.  5, 
1865. 


TRADE  223 

difficulties  and  threats  of  secession  they  again  rose 
to  $2,050,000.1 

The  war  cloud  burst  in  1861.  Southern  merchants 
promptly  repudiated  northern  debts  amounting  to 
approximately  $300,000,000.  Uncertainty  as  to  the 
course  of  the  war,  the  sudden  readjustments  that  the 
conflict  necessitated  in  every  walk  of  life,  and  the 
collapse  of  state  banking  systems  throughout  the 
country  completed  the  general  derangement.  Com- 
mercial failures  in  the  northern  states  in  1861  num- 
bered 5,935;  the  liabilities  which  they  involved 
amounted  to  $178,632,000. ^  Almost  as  disastrous  as 
the  panic  of  1857  was  that  of  1861. 

From  this  second  great  crisis  Wisconsin  was  not 
exempt.  Any  general  business  disturbance  in  the 
North  was  certain  to  be  felt  here.  However,  the 
merchants  of  Wisconsin  sulTered  less  than  did  those 
in  the  East.  A  simple  agricultural  community,  few 
of  her  business  men  excepting  her  bankers  had  formed 
commercial  ties  with  the  slaveholding  states.  The 
repudiation  of  Confederate  debts  and  the  interrup- 
tion of  southern  commerce  harmed  her  only  indirectly. 
The  farmers  of  Wisconsin,  moreover,  in  the  preceding 
autumn  had  garnered  the  greatest  grain  crop  in  her 
history;  they  could  again  purchase  supplies  and  pay 
for  them.  Although  the  liabilities  of  bankrupts  in 
the  North  as  a  whole  in  1861  were  three  times  those 
of  1860  the  losses  upon  the  ledgers  of  Wisconsin  rose 
only  from  $2,050,000  to  $2,675,000.^ 

Almost  immune  from  the  depression  of  1861  were 

1  Ibid. 

2  Ibid. 

3  Ibid. 


224  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

those  railroad  cities  of  Wisconsin  which  at  the  out- 
break of  the  war  gained  the  diverted  commerce  of 
the  Mississippi  River.  Milwaukee  between  1860  and 
1861  found  the  number  of  her  commercial  failures 
actually  decreasing;  their  total  liabilities  fell  from 
$753,321  to  $537,204.1  "While  we  hear  of  prostration 
of  business  in  nearly  all  other  sections  of  the  country," 
observed  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel  in  the  autumn  of 
1861,  "we  certainly  cannot  reasonably  complain  that 
any  such  state  of  things  exists  here.  Even  with  the 
drawback  of  currency,  which,  better  than  that  of 
many  other  states,  is  still  not  as  good  as  specie,  busi- 
ness here  is  decidedly  active  and  good.  The  heavily 
loaded  trains  bringing  grain  do  not  return  empty, 
but  take  goods  into  the  country,  corresponding  to  a 
great  extent  with  the  values  they  bring  in."^  **The 
statistics  show,"  boasted  the  Milwaukee  Chamber 
of  Commerce  in  1862,  "that  last  year  mercantile 
failures  in  this  city,  have  been  fewer  and  for  a  less 
amount  than  in  any  other  city  in  the  Union,  in  pro- 
portion to  population  and  business."^ 

From  the  railroad  terminal.  La  Crosse,  at  the 
opposite  end  of  the  State  came  the  same  report  at  the 
close  of  1861: 

Notwithstanding  the  cry  of  hard  times,  business  in  La  Crosse  has  stead- 
ily and  rapidly  improved  since  last  year,  when  our  list  [of  business  firms] 
was  but  little  over  one-half  the  size  as  now.  Business  of  all  kinds,  except 
shaving  notes,  is  better,  and  money  is  more  plenty.  The  merchants  of 
the  city  show  us  from  their  cash  sales,  that  trade  is,  on  an  average,  fully 
one  hundred  per  cent  better  this  season  than  last,  while  the  wholesale 
trade  of  the  city  has  wonderfully  increased. 


1  Ibid. 

2  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  June  4,  1861. 

»  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1862,  5. 


TRADE  225 

From  the  freight  books  at  the  depot  of  the  La  Crosse  and  Milwaukee 
Railroad,  in  this  city,  we  learn  by  actual  figures,  that  there  has  arrived 
here  for  the  merchants  of  this  city,  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  and  a 
half  per  cent  more  goods  during  the  year  1861  than  for  any  previous 
year.i 

Fortunately  throughout  the  North  recovery  from 
the  panic  of  1861  was  rapid.  By  the  summer  of  1862 
the  nation  was  ready  for  a  new  era  of  expansion. 
Greenback  money  became  plentiful,  prices  rose  cor- 
respondingly, and  tradesmen  once  more  found  pur- 
chasers for  their  wares.  Losses  by  bankruptcy  in 
Wisconsin  fell  in  1862  to  one-fifth  the  amount  sus- 
tained in  1861,  and  thereafter  practically  disap- 
peared.^  Farmers,  lumbermen,  and  miners,  who  for 
five  years  had  bought  only  the  bare  necessities  of  life, 
unloosed  their  purse  strings  for  a  few  of  the  amenities. 
Stocks  of  merchandise  rose  in  value  from  one  day  to 
the  next,  yet  purchasers  paid  the  enhanced  prices 
without  a  murmur.  Never  did  Wisconsin  tradesmen 
find  easier  or  more  lucrative  sale  for  their  wares  than 
during  the  years  1863  to  1867. 

Profits  of  merchants  and  business  men  increased 
with  a  rapidity  that  satisfied  the  most  grasping.  In 
Milwaukee  between  1863  and  1864  the  number  of 
persons  whose  incomes  exceeded  $10,000  rose  from 
44  to  83.3  Speculation  flourished  under  the  stimulus 
of  rising  prices.  John  Plankington,  who  in  1864 
headed  the  Ust  of  Milwaukee's  successful  merchants 
with  an  income  of  $104,100,  won  the  largest  part 
of  it  by  fortunate  investments  in  wool.''    All  the  les- 

'  La  Crosse  Democrat,  Dec.  20,  1861. 

2  New  York  Herald,  Jan.  1,  1863,  Jan.  1,  1864,  and  Jan.  5,  1865. 

3  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Aug.  7,  1865.  For  the  incomes  for  1865  see  ibid., 
July  31,  1866. 

*  Ibid. 

15 


226  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

sons  of  caution  that  two  successive  panics  had  taught 
were  forgotten  in  the  universal  spirit  of  good  feeling. 

A  conspicuous  evidence  of  this  prosperity  was 
the  renewal  of  building  operations  in  the  cities  of 
Wisconsin.  Residences,  offices,  and  stores  rose  from 
the  ground  almost  over  night.  In  the  smaller 
towns  buildings  in  process  of  construction  were 
numbered  by  the  hundred,  in  Milwaukee  by  the 
thousand.^  Local  newspaper  items  like  the  follow- 
ing from  the  La  Crosse  Democrat  were  of  common 
occurrence:  "The  growth  of  our  city  this  season 
is  surprisingly  large,  and  very  gratifying.  Since 
the  first  of  April  [1862]  over  two  hundred  buildings, 
of  various  kinds  have  been  erected. "^  "On  every 
principal  street  in  the  city  can  be  seen  signs  of 
building.  Huge  piles  of  brick.  Men  busy  dressing 
out  stone.  Old  wooden  tenements  walking  off  lively 
to  make  room  for  more  substantial  business  houses."^ 

Public  improvements,  though  somewhat  restricted 
by  the  financial  burdens  of  the  war,  by  no  means  came 
to  an  entire  halt.  Throughout  the  course  of  the 
southern  conflict  the  state  government  continued  to 
press  forward  the  building  of  its  beautiful  new  capitol. 
In  numerous  localities  courthouses,  churches,  and 
railroad  stations  were  under  construction.  Much- 
needed  bridges  and  miles  of  new  city  sidewalks 
rendered  business  intercourse  more  safe  and  pleasant. 
Streets,  though  remaining  on  the  whole  very  bad, 
were  here  and  there  macadamized  or  covered  with 

1  In  1866  Milwaukee  erected  1,233  buildings  at  a  cost  of  $2,467,500; 
in  1867,  1,388  at  a  cost  of  $3,034,  295;  in  1868,  1,293  at  a  cost  of  $2,583,710. 
Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1868,  9. 

2  La  Crosse  Democrat,  Nov.  18,  1862. 
'/Z>/d.,  Mar.  17,  1863. 


TRADE  227 

the  much-discussed  Nicholson  pavement.  Milwaukee 
raised  the  grade  of  a  considerable  section  of  her 
down-town  business  district  and  rapidly  extended  her 
horse-railway  line,  begun  in  1859.  A  number  of 
municipaUties  installed  new  gas-Ughting  systems; 
others  enlarged  systems  already  in  operation.  Thus 
in  pubUc  as  in  private  building  the  State  progressed 
during  the  war. 

In  growth  of  population  the  cities  of  Wisconsin 
entirely   outdistanced   the   remainder   of   the   State. 
Between    1860    and    1865    the    agricultural    regions 
gained  in  numbers  only  8.9  per  cent.     Many  of  the 
southern  and  eastern  counties  remained  stationary; 
others  actually  retrograded.    The  thirty-three  largest 
cities  and  villages  of  Wisconsin,  on  the  other  hand, 
gained  in  numbers  26.6  per  cent.    Milwaukee  became 
a  community  of  55,641  inhabitants,  an  increase  in  five 
years  of  23  per  cent.   The  eight  largest  lumbering  cities 
in  the  State  added  61.5  per  cent  to  their  population,  a 
gain  seven  times  as  great  as  that  of  rural  Wisconsin.^ 
This  rapid  growth  of  Wisconsin  cities  continued 
during  the  second  half  of  the  decade.    The  relative 
gain   over   the   agricultural   districts,    however,    was 
considerably  less,   owing   to   the   movement   of   un- 
employed soldiers    to    the    farms    and    the    increase 
of  foreign  immigration.   Thus  the  thirty-three  largest 
municipalities  in  the  State  between  1865  and  1870 
grew  only   5  per  cent  faster  than  the  agricultural 
region,  which  was  less  than  one-third  the  ratio  of  the 
preceding    years.       Milwaukee    reflected    her    swift 

1  The  population  statistics  in  U.  S.  Census,  1860  are  incomplete.  They 
are  reprinted,  however,  in  correct  form  in  the  census  for  1870.  See  id., 
1870,  I,  p.  xlvi  and  287-95;  Wisconsin  Secretary  of  State,  Report,  1865. 
87-133.' 


228  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

development  as  a  manufacturing  community  by 
adding  28.3  per  cent  to  her  numbers.  The  lumber 
towns  still  led  all  others  in  the  State  in  the  rapidity 
of  their  development,  their  growth  for  the  five-year 
period  being  35.1  per  cent.^ 

That  so  prolonged  and  costly  a  conflict  as  the  Civil 
War  should  have  come  to  a  close  without  an  immedi- 
ate commercial  revulsion  was  a  remarkable  tribute 
to  the  economic  strength  of  the  North.  The  eastern 
states  in  1865  did  suffer  a  temporary  depression  of 
industry;  the  Northwest  merely  paused  to  take 
breath,  then  hurried  forward  as  before.  The  Green 
Bay  Advocate  on  July  10,  1865  observed:  "There  has 
been  apprehension  among  some  that  the  closing  up 
of  the  war  and  the  consequent  fall  of  prices  from 
war  figures,  would  work  wide-spread  financial  dis- 
aster. But  this  has  not  proved  true.  The  tense- 
drawn  muscles  did  indeed  relax  for  a  little  repose, 
but  have  again  resumed  their  wonted  vigor." 

The  same  pleasing  phenomenon  was  thus  recorded 
by  the  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce: 

Whether  we  shall  escape  entirely  the  prostration  and  derangement  of 
business  usually  following  protracted  and  exhausting  wars,  it  may  now 
be  too  soon  to  judge.  But  whatever  results  may  be  experienced  hereafter 
in  this  respect,  it  is  gratifying  to  know  that  the  general  business  of  the 
country  has  thus  far  suffered  no  serious  consequences,  and  that  our  own 
city  in  particular  has  continued  steadily  progressing  in  commerce,  manu- 
factures and  population.  *  *  *  Ourwholesalemerchants  and  jobbers  have 
rarely  enjoyed  a  more  prosperous  season,  and  are  now  putting  forth  com- 
mendable efforts  to  extend  our  commerce  to  sections  with  which  we  have 
hitherto  had  but  little  traffic. ^ 

Depression,  the  inevitable  though  delayed  conse- 
quence of  the  war,  at  length  overtook  the  Northwest 

1  Ibid. 

2  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1865,  3. 


TRADE  229 

in  1867.  For  four  years  the  tradesmen  of  Wisconsin 
labored  under  difficulties  similar  to  those  of  1857. 
In  1871  conditions  gradually  improved,  and  hopeful 
merchants  prophesied  a  new  era  of  unexampled 
prosperity.  For  a  time  it  seemed  that  the  good  times 
had  in  truth  come  to  stay.  They  proved,  however, 
to  be  only  transient.  Rudely  and  suddenly  in  the 
panic  of  1873  they  took  their  departure. 

One  of  the  numerous  problems  besetting  trades- 
men in  the  State  during  the  opening  years  of  the  Civil 
War  was  the  unsatisfactory  condition  of  their  cur- 
rency. We  have  already  seen  in  the  preceding 
chapter  the  manifold  shortcomings  of  Wisconsin's 
paper  money  at  that  time.  So  notorious  were  these 
that  business  men  in  the  State  during  the  crash  of 
1860-61  often  found  it  impossible  to  pay  for  purchases 
made  in  the  East  in  any  other  way  than  to  ship 
thither  flour  and  pork.^  The  wary  easterners  realized 
that  the  western  money  might  depreciate  in  value 
even  while  in  transit.  In  Milwaukee  during  the  first 
eight  months  of  1861  the  rate  of  exchange  for  New 
York  currency  was  altered  more  than  thirty  times. 
Usually  it  ranged  from  5  to  8  per  cent;  only  once, 
early  in  January,  did  it  descend  to  3  per  cent;  during 
the  crisis  months,  April,  June,  and  July,  it  rose  to 
10  and  15  per  cent.-  At  home  and  abroad  Wisconsin 
currency  was  thus  in  thorough  discredit. 

Not  only  by  Badger  wildcats  but  by  the  even  more 
ferocious  species  of  Illinois  and  Minnesota  were  the 
business  men  of  Wisconsin  pursued  at  this  time. 
Compelled  by  the  exigencies  of  trade  frequently  to 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  1,  1861. 

''Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1861,  34. 


230  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

accept  money  that  they  knew  little  or  nothing  about, 
they  were  in  a  sorry  predicament.  Ordinarily  they 
could  accept  with  assurance  no  out-of-state  bank 
bills  proffered  them,  excepting  possibly  those  of  New 
England  and  New  York.  Between  the  paper  of  their 
own  State  and  that  reachingthem  from  other  states 
there  was  thus  little  choice. 

Quite  aside  from  questions  of  the  intrinsic  merit  of 
paper  money  was  the  danger  of  counterfeits.  To 
issue  spurious  currency  was  a  highly  profitable  and 
comparatively  safe  procedure.  Today  paper  money 
throughout  the  country  is  of  a  uniform  type,  easily 
recognizable,  and  difTicult  to  imitate.  In  1860  ap- 
proximately 10,000  varieties  of  American  and  Cana- 
dian bank  notes  were  in  circulation  within  the 
Union. ^  For  any  banker  to  distinguish  the  genuine 
issues  of  all  of  these  from  the  clever  copies  made  of 
them  was  obviously  impossible.  Immeasurably 
greater  was  the  perplexity  of  the  ordinary  tradesman. 

The  best  and  most  widely  accepted  bank  notes 
were  those  likeliest  to  be  imitated.  The  issues  of  174 
of  the  185  banks  of  Massachusetts,  for  instance, 
were  beclouded  with  counterfeits  during  the  war. 
New  York  fared  almost  as  badly.  Of  her  303  banks 
only  45  escaped  the  attentions  of  rogues.  Altogether 
in  the  North  at  the  beginning  of  1863  approximately 
7,000  kinds  of  notes  were  in  circulation.  Bearing 
them  company  were  5,500  varieties  of  spurious, 
altered,  and  counterfeit  bills. ^ 

So  widespread  was  this  evil  that  in  every  part  of 

1  J.  T.  Hodges,  New  Bank  Note  Safe-Guard  (New  York,  1860),T 
^This  account  is  taken  from  Fite,  Social  and  Industrial  Conditions, 

li:5-16;  D.  R.  Dewey,  Financial  History  of  the  United  States  (New  York, 

1915),  322. 


TRADE  231 

the  country  it  was  necessary  to  issue  weekly  periodi- 
cals which  had  no  other  function  than  to  describe 
new  and  old  frauds  on  the  market.  In  the  West  these 
Bank  Note  Safe  Guards  or  Counterfeit  Detectors, 
as  they  were  called,  gained  a  wide  circulation  during 
the  war,  and  their  services  were  constantly  supple- 
mented by  newspaper  notices  of  warning. 

The  merchant  of  Wisconsin  who  in  the  course  of 
his  business  was  proffered  a  bank  note  was  at  once 
confronted  with  a  difTicult  problem  in  currency. 
If  the  bank  issuing  the  money  were  unknown  to 
him  he  must  determine  as  well  as  possible  its  character 
for  stability.  Then  he  must  fetch  his  Detector  and 
assure  himself  that  the  bill  was  not  altered  or  a 
counterfeit.  If  he  accepted  the  money  and  offered 
paper  in  change,  his  patron  needed  to  be  equally 
cautious.  From  beginning  to  end  the  system  was 
full  of  vexation  and  danger. 

Fortunately  this  problem  found  solution  during 
the  war.  In  1862  the  Federal  government,  driven 
by  necessity,  began  to  issue  legal  tenders.  By  1864, 
when  the  emissions  ceased,  it  had  placed  in  circula- 
tion $431,000,000.  Everywhere  in  the  West  the 
greenbacks,  as  they  were  called,  were  accepted 
without  reservation.  In  Wisconsin  where,  owing  to 
the  restrictive  policy  of  the  State  bankers  local 
currency  was  insufTicient  for  business  needs,  the  new 
currency  was  eagerly  welcomed. 

The  national  banking  act  of  1863  provided  another 
though  a  less  prolific  source  of  Federal  paper  money. 
On  the  whole  the  measure  did  not  become  effective 
until  the  closing  year  of  the  Civil  War.  It  was  of 
immense    importance  to    the  West,  however,  for  it 


232  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

inaugurated  a  legislative  policy  which  at  length 
in  1866  brought  to  an  end  the  hated  and  outworn 
system  of  State  currency.^ 

A  source  of  much  petty  annoyance  to  the  merchants 
of  Wisconsin  during  the  early  years  of  the  Civil  War 
was  the  absence  of  small  change.  Gold,  never  plenti- 
ful in  the  West,  disappeared  from  circulation  within 
a  few  months  after  the  assault  on  Fort  Sumter.  The 
useful  fractional  coins  followed  shortly  after.  By 
the  summer  of  1862  small  silver,  nickles,  and  even 
coppers  had  entirely  deserted  the  channels  of  trade. 

This  predicament  was  not  a  new  one.  On  every 
occasion  in  the  history  of  the  State  when  paper  money 
showed  signs  of  depreciation  silver  change  at  once 
retired  from  the  avenues  of  commerce.  As  recently 
as  the  winter  of  1860-61  the  tradesmen  of  Wisconsin 
had  suffered  from  this  difTiculty.  They  had  then 
endeavored  to  escape  it  by  issuing  token  money, 
known  in  the  vernacular  as  shinplasters,  a  device  as 
old  as  the  problem  which  it  sought  to  obviate. 

Everywhere  in  the  State  during  the  summer  and 
autumn  of  1862  substitutes  for  coins  made  their 
appearance.  They  consisted  for  the  most  part  of 
pasteboard  tickets,  stamped  to  represent  5,  10,  25, 
or  50  cents.  The  better  varieties  were  actual  bank 
checks,  though,  to  be  sure,  they  called  for  fractional 
parts  of  a  dollar.  Such,  however,  did  not  remain  in 
circulation  long.  The  banks  speedily  tired  of  the 
nuisance  of  redeeming  them  and  forbade  their 
further  issue. ^    MunicipaUties  in  some  parts  of  Wis- 

^  Ante,  chap.  vii. 

2  See  Green  Bay  Advocate,  Dec.  17,  1862.  The  reason  given  by  the 
Bank  of  Green  Bay  for  refusing  any  longer  to  honor  checks  for  fractional 


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WISCONSIN    SIIINPLASTERS  IN  USE  DURING  THE  CIVIL  WAR 
Originals  in  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Museum 


TRADE  233 

consin  improvised  pseudo-mints,  though  not  always 
with  success.  By  far  the  largest  part  of  the  token 
money  consisted  of  simple  fiats  of  individual  mer- 
chants unsecured  by  anything  but  a  signature. 

The  abuses  to  which  the  system  was  liable  soon 
became  apparent.  "Our  city,"  said  the  Milwaukee 
Sentinel  in  the  middle  of  1862,  "is  flooded  with 
shinplasters  issued  by  irresponsible  parties.  Five, 
ten,  twenty-five,  and  fifty  cent  notes  are  scattered 
about  in  endless  profusion.  Parties  whom  no  one 
has  ever  heard  of,  or  ever  seen,  take  the  responsibility 
of  forming  banking  estabUshments  of  their  own,  and 
issue  bank  notes  without  regard  to  'expense'  or  the 
price  of  paper.  One-horse  auctioneers,  butchers, 
saloon-keepers,  bootblacks,  loafers,  and  every  one 
who  is  without  money,  goes  into  this  business  ex- 
tensively. Some  are  too  lazy  to  let  us  know  who  they 
are,  and  merely  sign  the  initials  of  their  names. "^ 

According  to  the  Green  Bay  Advocate,  "the  plas- 
ters are  to  a  great  extent,  mere  due  bills  issued  at 
every  two-penny  doggery,  and  there  is  no  dealer  of 
any  kind  who  has  a  sign  hung  out  but  can  do  a  bank- 
ing business  at  his  own  counter."^ 

More  reUable,  though  less  convenient,  than  shin- 
plasters  were  government  postage  stamps.  On  July 
17,  1862  Congress  made  them  legal  tender  and 
encouraged  their  use  as  a  medium  of  exchange.  They 
were  ill  adapted  to  their  new  employment.  "The 
gummy  back,  fragile  texture,  small  surface  and  light 
weight  of  the  stamps  made  them  the  worst  circulating 

parts  of  a  dollar  was  that  "redeeming  the  same  occupies  so  much  of  our 
time  as  to  seriously  interfere  with  our  business." 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Dec.  17,  1862. 

-  Green  Bay  Advocate,  Nov.  27,  1862. 


234  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

medium  ever  known  in  the  United  States.  To  hand 
a  *  *  *  stage  driver  his  fare  of  two  3-cent  stamps  on 
a  wet  day,  to  buy  a  newspaper  on  a  windy  street 
corner,  to  make  change  hurriedly  doing  the  sums 
necessary  in  the  denomination  of  3  cents  (the  stamp 
most  frequently  employed  and  the  one  of  which 
there  was  the  greatest  supply)  into  the  convenient 
decimal  system — such  matters  increased  the  small 
vexations  of  life."^ 

At  length,  in  the  autumn  of  1862,  the  national 
government  delivered  the  people  of  the  North  from 
the  abuses  of  shinplasters  and  the  annoyance  of 
postage  stamps.  Under  a  liberal  interpretation  of 
the  law  of  that  year  the  Treasury  Department  issued 
a  special  form  of  postage  stamps  known  as  postal 
currency.  Unglued  and  in  the  shape  of  miniature 
bank  notes,  the  new  money  appeared  in  denomina- 
tions of  5,  10,  25,  and  50  cents. ^  So  popular  did  it 
at  once  become  that  the  incessant  labor  of  government 
presses  for  months  could  not  supply  the  demand  for  it. 

No  sooner  did  the  postal  currency  become  plentiful 
in  Wisconsin  than  shinplasters  of  every  variety  dis- 
appeared. An  act  of  Congress  pronouncing  them 
unlawful,  which  had  been  adopted  in  the  summer  of 
1862  but  had  never  been  enforced,  was  now  vigorously 
applied.  In  the  winter  of  1862-63  merchants  in  every 
part  of  Wisconsin  agreed  no  longer  to  receive  or  issue  the 
token  money  except  to  redeem  such  as  they  themselves 
had  issued.^  By  the  summer  of  1863  the  currency 
troubles  of  Wisconsin  business  men  were  thus  well  over. 

»  J.  F.  Rhodes,  History  of  United  States  (New  York,  1893),  V,  192. 

2  Ibid.,  193-94. 

3  See  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Dec.  17  and  Dec.  26,  1862;  Green  Bay  Advo- 
cale,  Feb.  19,  1863;  Appleton  Crescent,  Jan.  31,  1863. 


TRADE  235 

Pioneer  communities  invariably  pay  higher  rates 
of  interest  for  the  use  of  money  than  older  societies. 
The   reason   is   obvious.      Opening    a   new    country 
involves  risks  which  capital  can  be  induced  to  incur 
only  upon  the   promise   of   generous   compensation. 
In  Wisconsin   during  the  forties  money  frequently 
commanded  a  yearly  income  of  15,  20,  and  some- 
times 25  per  cent.    To  pay  such  charges  was  feasible 
so  long  as  pubUc  lands  could  be  purchased  at  merely 
nominal  prices  and  speedily  sold   again  to   settlers 
at  a  handsome  margin.    Perhaps  in  these  speculative 
ventures  money  secured  no  more  than  a  just  share  of 
the  gains.     In  1851,  however,  the  State  legislature 
hmited  to  12  per  cent  the  legal  charge  that  could  be 
imposed  as  interest  in  Wisconsin.^ 

By  the  end  of  the  fifties  the  southern  half  of  the 
State  had  advanced  to  a  position  where  even  12  per 
cent  constituted  a  social  menace.  The  most  desirable 
government  lands  had  all  passed  into  private  hands, 
and  speculating  as  a  profession  had  given  way  to 
agriculture  and  trade.  The  farmer  and  the  merchant, 
who  succeeded  the  land  agent,  earned  only  modest 
returns  upon  their  investments.  It  was  ruinous  for 
them  to  attempt  to  pay  capitaUsts  the  interest 
charges  that  the  law  allowed.  Those  who  persisted 
in  doing  it  came  to  sudden  grief  in  the  rigid  contrac- 
tion of  values  that  followed  the  panic  of  1857. 

During  the  hard  times  that  succeeded  the  industrial 
crisis  the  people  of  Wisconsin  came  to  regard  12  per 
cent  interest  as  usury.^    Prices  upon  commodities  of 

1  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1851,  chap.  172. 

2  See  annual  messages  of  Wisconsin  governors  from  1858  to  1862, 
published  in  Wis.  Mess,  and  Docs.,  1858-62;  also  an  address  by  L.  P. 
Harvey  in  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1858-59,  431-33. 


236  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

every  description  were  far  below  normal;  only  capital 
commanded  as  before  $12  or  more  per  year  for  the 
use  of  a  hundred.  "Interest,"  declared  Governor 
Randall  in  1859,  "is  the  rust  that  is  rapidly  consum- 
ing our  people.  It  not  only  eats  away  our  surplus 
profits,  but  in  a  majority  of  cases,  is  eating  deep 
into  our  capital.  It  is  unaffected  by  poor  crops  and 
worse  markets.  It  gathers  strength  and  weight  and 
oppressive  power  continually,  whether  we  sleep  or 
wake,  while  we  rest  as  well  as  while  we  labor.  There 
must  come  a  bitter  end  to  such  a  policy."^ 

Further  restriction  by  statute  of  the  charges  of 
money  lenders  was  the  simple  remedy  proposed  by 
the  debtors  of  Wisconsin.  This,  however,  involved 
objections.  Capitalists  took  exception  to  it  on  the 
ground  that  the  price  of  money  should  be  regulated 
not  by  arbitrary  enactments  but  by  the  laws  of 
supply  and  demand.  Restrictive  legislation,  they 
declared,  could  only  injure  the  State  by  driving  away 
the  financial  means  necessary  to  its  development. 
On  the  other  hand  the  friends  of  the  plan  asserted  that 
the  only  capital  which  a  restrictive  law  would  banish 
from  Wisconsin  was  such  as  the  State  would  be  better 
without.  They  maintained  that  it  was  better  for 
Wisconsin  to  develop  slowly  and  conservatively  than 
to  exhaust  herself  in  enriching  usurers  and  money 
sharks.  To  permit  unproductive  money  to  earn  12 
per  cent,  they  asserted,  was  actually  to  retard  prog- 
ress. "The  farmer  who  can  only  realize  two  or  three 
per  cent,  after  all  his  toil  and  labor,  on  the  value  of 
his  farm,  must  be  tempted  to  sell  his  land,  and  stop 
producing,  when  he  discovers  that  on  the  money  for 

1  Wis.  Mess,  and  Docs.,  1859,  29. 


TRADE  237 

which  he  sells,  he  can  realize  without  labor,  ten  or 
twelve  per  cent.  Capitalists  will  not  put  their  money 
into  manufactures,  while  they  can  realize  without 
risk  ten  or  twelve  per  cent  for  the  use  of  their 
money. "^  Only  by  limiting  interest,  it  was  urged,  to 
a  level  below  the  average  profit  of  productive  industry 
could  the  State  prevail  upon  money  lenders  to  turn 
their  energies  to  the  actual  labors  of  developing 
natural  resources. 

At  length  in  1860  the  people  of  Wisconsin  secured 
the  enactment  of  a  law  reducing  the  legal  rate  of 
interest  to  10  per  cent.^  This  afforded  them  consider- 
able relief  despite  the  fact  that  the  statute  was 
ignored  in  times  of  financial  stringency.  As  a  result, 
during  the  prosperous  years  of  the  war,  the  interest 
problem  disappeared  from  public  discussion. 

Thus  Wisconsin  business  men  played  their  part 
in  the  industrial  development  of  the  State.  In  its 
problems  as  well  as  in  its  triumphs  they  had  their 
full  share.  By  guiding  and  directing  its  economic 
fortunes  they  rendered  the  Badger  commonwealth 
important  service  during  the  critical  years  of  the 
Civil  War. 

\Id.,  1861,  17. 

2  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1860.  chap.  202. 


CHAPTER  IX 
RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES 

The  policy  of  public  aid  for  internal  improvements 
was  discredited  in  many  parts  of  the  United  States 
even  before  Wisconsin  aspired  to  a  place  in  the  Union. 
Not  only  had  it  plunged  commonwealths  and  local 
communities  into  debt  but  frequently  it  had  left  them 
with  half-finished  or  otherwise  useless  enterprises 
on  their  hands.  Individuals  entrusted  with  public 
donations  had  shown  themselves  careless,  even  at 
times  corrupt,  in  their  management.  Rarely  had 
communities  been  entirely  satisfied  with  their  in- 
vestments. Frequently  their  discontent  was  so  great 
as  to  render  them  unwilling  to  pay  debts  thus  con- 
tracted. Many  localities  repudiated  their  obligations 
outright;  others  contested  them  in  the  courts;  still 
others  compromised  as  well  as  they  might.  Those 
that  met  their  payments  squarely  by  increasing  their 
taxes  found  to  their  consternation  many  of  their 
most  enterprising  citizens  emigrating  to  the  un- 
burdened states  of  the  new  West. 

Numbers  of  these  tax-exiled  emigrants  settled 
upon  the  fertile  soil  of  southern  Wisconsin.  When  the 
constitution  of  the  new  commonwealth  was  framed 
in  1848  their  first  care  was  to  write  into  it  an  ironclad 
prohibition  against  State  aid  of  any  kind,  either  by 
subscription  or  by  the  loaning  of  public  credit,  to 

[  238  1 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  239 

any  internal  improvement.^  Happy  indeed  the  people 
that  had  such  a  basic  law.  As  a  governmental  unit, 
at  least,  Wisconsin  was  spared  the  trials  and  humili- 
ations that  marked  the  early  history  of  her  neighbors. 

However,  Wisconsin  must  have  railroads.  Her 
citizens  clamored  for  them.  Cheap  and  easy  transpor- 
tation was  the  goal  of  their  most  cherished  hopes. 
In  our  day  rapid  transit  has  come  to  be  taken  as  a 
matter  of  course.  Early  Wisconsin,  however,  knew 
how  to  appreciate  it.  Farmers  living  in  the  interior 
were  often  obliged  to  cart  their  wheat  forty  or  fifty 
miles  to  market  over  almost  impassable  roads  and 
at  a  cost  nearly  equaling  the  price  which  they  re- 
ceived for  their  grain.  Their  material  progress,  to 
say  nothing  of  their  intellectual  and  spiritual  welfare, 
depended  upon  securing  means  of  communication 
with  the  outside  world. 

Funds  for  building  railroads,  however,  were  difTi- 
cult  to  obtain.  A  frontier  community  always  lacks 
ready  capital,  and  Wisconsin  was  no  exception  to 
the  general  rule.  Promoters,  moreover,  refused  to 
undertake  unaided  so  uncertain  a  project  as  building 
a  railroad  in  a  new  country.  They  knew  that  for 
many  years,  while  the  State  was  developing  and 
trafTic  was  growing  up,  they  must  operate  at  a  loss. 
They  argued  that  in  other  parts  of  the  Union  states 
and  localities  offered  aid  to  such  works.  Why  should 
Wisconsin  be  an  exception?  If  its  constitution  pro- 
hibited the  central  government  from  extending 
bounty  to  railroads,  it  did  not  so  restrict  local  com- 

^  "Constitution  of  Wisconsin,"  art.  8,  sec.  10,  in  Wis.  Rev.  Statutes, 
1858,  40.  This  prohibition  did  not  extend  to  land  grants  donated  by 
Congress  to  the  State  for  internal  improvements. 


240  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

munities  or  individuals.  Obviously  the  latter  must 
pledge  the  support  that  in  other  regions  was  given 
by  state  authorities. 

Under  such  pressure  individuals  and  local  commu- 
nities came  generously  to  the  support  of  railroads. 
Practically  every  line  built  in  Wisconsin  prior  to  the 
Civil  War  had  its  origin  in  their  encouragement. 
When,  however,  the  panic  of  1857  forced  the  railroad 
companies  into  bankruptcy,  the  popular  suffering 
that  resulted  was  keener,  the  losses  more  directly  felt, 
than  in  any  of  the  regions  where  the  results  of  failure 
were  spread  over  an  entire  commonwealth. 

In  the  measure  that  the  losses  of  individuals  and 
localities  came  close  home  reluctance  to  pay  them 
was  increased.  Wisconsin  railroad  promoters  had, 
moreover,  been  more  than  usually  extravagant  and 
corrupt  in  their  management  of  the  funds  entrusted 
to  them.  It  was  easy  for  the  Badger  farmers  and 
communities  to  convince  themselves  that  they  were 
justified  in  disowning  their  railroad  obligations. 
During  the  later  fifties  and  early  sixties  repudiation 
became  almost  universal  in  the  State.  In  the  financial 
circles  of  the  East  the  name  Wisconsin  became  a 
term  of  reproach,  synonymous  with  dishonor  and 
moral  turpitude. 

Two  phases  of  the  problem  of  railroad  indebtedness 
assumed  importance  in  Wisconsin  during  the  war. 
One  related  to  the  obligations  of  localities.  The  other 
concerned  itself  with  the  so-called  railroad  farm 
mortgages,  a  difficulty  unique  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States.  For  nearly  ten  years  it  distracted 
southern  Wisconsin,  dominating  political  parties, 
compelling  the  support  of  legislatures  and  governors, 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  241 

and  threatening  the  independence  of  a  hostile  judi- 
ciary. 

This  embarrassing  problem  was  introduced  to 
Wisconsin  by  her  pioneer  railroad  company,  the  Mil- 
waukee &  Mississippi.  The  latter,  upon  its  march 
across  Wisconsin,  had  scarcely  reached  Waukesha, 
less  than  a  score  of  miles  from  Milwaukee,  when 
its  funds  were  exhausted  and  it  was  casting  about  for 
help.  On  Feb.  28,  1850  its  officers  called  a  meeting  of 
stockholders  and  interested  farmers  at  Waukesha  to 
take  counsel.  There  Joseph  Goodrich,  a  prominent 
resident  of  the  neighboring  town  of  Milton,  advanced 
the  proposal  that  fastened  the  mortgage  difficulty 
upon  the  State. ^ 

The  plan  was  a  novel  one.  Farmers  along  the  line 
of  the  railroad  were  to  be  invited  to  purchase  stock 
even  if  they  had  no  money  with  which  to  pay  for  it. 
Instead  of  cash  they  might  give  their  personal  notes, 
secured  by  mortgages  on  their  farms.  These  notes, 
together  with  the  mortgages,  were  to  be  payable  in 
ten  years.  The  interest  on  the  mortgages  was  to  be 
8  :per  cent,  but  the  railroad  stock  was  to  pay  dividends 
of  10  per  cent.  To  facilitate  bookkeeping  the  railroad 
officials  would  merely  subtract  the  interest  due  on 
the  mortgages  from  the  dividends  accruing  on  the 
stock  and  permit  the  remaining  2  per  cent  of  stock 
dividends  to  accumulate  upon  their  books  until  the 
time  when  the  notes  were  paid.  The  Company  was 
to  have  the  privilege  of  selling  these  mortgages  as 
collateral  security  for  its  railroad  bonds  in  the  eastern 

»  "Reply  to  Address  of  the  Farmers'  General  Home  League,"  43-45, 
bound  with  Milwaukee  &  Mississippi  Railroad,  Report,  1849-61,  in  Wiscon- 
sin Historical  Library.    See  also  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Mar.  1,  1861. 


242  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

money  markets  and  thus  obtain  the  necessary  means 
for  carrying  its  line  to  successful  completion. 

Such  a  plan  appealed  to  the  optimistic  mind  of  the 
western  settler.  He  was  at  no  time  disposed  to  be 
overcautious,  and  this  was  a  period  of  great  pros- 
perity. He  calculated  that  when  his  note  came  due 
the  accumulated  dividends  upon  the  Company's 
books  would  already  have  paid  20  per  cent  of  it. 
In  addition  his  stock  would  by  that  time  undoubtedly 
be  worth  far  more  than  the  par  price  which  he  had 
paid.  It  would  then  become  a  question  for  him  to 
decide  at  leisure  whether  to  sell  his  railroad  securities 
and  with  the  proceeds  cancel  his  mortgage,  or  keep 
the  stock  as  a  ground-floor  investment. 

This  plan,  perfected  and  varied  in  its  details,  grew 
rapidly  in  popular  favor.  It  was  quickly  adopted  by 
all  the  railroads  in  Wisconsin,  and  from  there  spread 
into  northern  Illinois.  Its  virtues  were  not  allowed 
to  lose  any  of  their  attractiveness  by  the  suave  stock 
agents  that  the  railroad  companies  employed.  Many 
of  the  latter  were  no  doubt  honest  in  dangling  glitter- 
ing prospects  of  gain  before  the  eyes  of  the  credulous 
farmers.  Some  of  them  demonstrated  their  sincerity 
by  signing  their  own  names  to  large  subscriptions  of 
stock.  Joseph  Goodrich,  who  induced  his  neighbors 
to  mortgage  their  farms  to  the  extent  of  $100,000, 
encumbered  his  own  homestead  for  $10,000.^  Deacon 
E.  D.  Clinton,  one  of  the  most  successful  of  the  agents, 
mortgaged  his  farm  for  $5,000  and  readily  accepted 
credits  upon  his  railroad  certificates  in  payment  of 
services  for  two  and  a  half  years. ^ 

'  See  references  cited  in  preceding  note. 

2  See  letters  of  E.  D.  Clinton    justifying  his  conduct  as  stock  agent, 


£.  o 

c 


o 

H 
O 

> 


•>,i><2&i^L.rr.  k>". 


'^ 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  243 

Many  agents,  on  the  other  hand,  were  apparently 
devoid  of  conscience  or  honor.  Bent  solely  upon  earn- 
ing the  commissions  that  the  railroad  companies 
allowed  them  they  stopped  at  no  falsehood  or  mis- 
representation, however  base,  to  sell  their  stock. 
They  called  popular  meetings  for  the  purpose  of 
"raising  wind,"  which  they  shrewdly  managed  so 
as  to  stir  up  enthusiasm  and  lead  on  hesitating 
victims.^  Over  and  over  again  they  assured  the  simple- 
minded  farmers  that  there  was  no  danger  in  the  mort- 
gage plan.  Only  profit,  they  declared,  could  possibly 
result  from  it.  Whether  they  were  supported  in 
these  tactics  by  the  companies  that  employed  them 
it  is  difficult  to  determine.  Certain  it  is  that  there 
was  some  basis  for  the  charge  later  made  that  the 
entire  mortgage  scheme  was  conceived  and  executed 
in  fraud. 

During  the  years  1850  to  1857,  while  the  first  fever 
of  railroad  construction  was  at  its  height,  ap- 
proximately 6,000  Wisconsin  farmers  mortgaged 
their  homesteads  to  the  extent  of  from  $4,500,000 
to  $5,000,000  in  order  to  purchase  railroad  stock. 
The  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  Railroad  received 
$1,100,000  of  such  mortgages,  the  Milwaukee  & 
Mississippi  Railroad,  $900,000,  the  Milwaukee  <Sc 
Horicon,  $375,000,  the  Milwaukee  &  Superior, 
$200,000,  and  numerous  other  railroads,  lesser 
amounts. 2  So  enthusiastic  were  the  settlers  of  south- 
in  Hartford  Home  League,  \ug.  18,  1860  and  Nov.  23,  1861;  see  also  ibid., 
Sept.  8,  1860. 

*  Practically  every  issue  of  the  Hartford  Home  League  during  the  first 
year  or  two  of  its  existence  contains  accounts  of  such  procedure. 

2  Ibid.,  Aug.  11,  1860.    This  paper  in  subsequent  issues  presents  detailed 
statistics  of  the  extent  of  the  farm-mortgage  difficulty,  giving  totals  by 


244  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

ern  Wisconsin  over  their  new-found  scheme  that  they 
were  disposed  to  frown  upon  the  cautious  who  saw 
breakers  ahead  and  even  to  denounce  as  lacking  in 
public  spirit  those  who  refused  to  subscribe. 

Disillusion  came  only  too  quickly.  The  farmers 
learned  that  the  railroad  companies  were  disposing 
of  their  mortgages  in  the  eastern  money  markets  at 
from  50  to  75  per  cent  of  their  face  value. ^  They  dis- 
covered that  the  interest  on  the  mortgages  was 
not  being  cancelled  and  that  the  eastern  holders  were 
threatening  foreclosure.  Rumors  of  extravagant  and 
fraudulent  construction  contracts  and  stories  of 
corruption,  rapidly  leading  the  roads  into  receiver- 
ship, leaked  out.  In  1857  came  the  crash  of  the  panic 
and  every  railroad  in  the  State  sank  at  once  into  hope- 
less ruin.  The  bubble  had  burst!  The  farmers  of  Wis- 
consin had  burdened  themselves  with  debt  and  as 
compensation  had  only  the  worthless  stock  of  bank- 
rupt corporations. 

Examination  into  the  records  of  the  railroad  com- 
panies revealed  a  degree  of  fraud  which  even  the 
darkest  suspicions  had  not  anticipated.  The  Mil- 
waukee &  Superior  Railroad  which  had  secured 
mortgages  to  the  amount  of  $200,000,  the  Wisconsin 
Central  with  $100,000,  the  Milwaukee  &  Beloit  with 
$175,000,  and  other  corporations  that  had  received 
farm  mortgages,  to  say  nothing  of  municipal  and 
county  bonds,  had  dissipated  their  entire  proceeds 
without  having  placed  in  operation  a  single  mile  of 

counties  and  also  by  railroad  lines.  The  references  are  too  numerous  to 
be  offered  here.  See  also  Wisconsin  Railroad  Commission,  Report,  1874, 
250-51;  "Annual  Message,"  1861,  10-11,  in  Wis.  Mess,  and  Docs.,  1861. 
1  New  York  Tribune,  July  14,  1860;  Hartford  Home  League,  Feb.  20, 
1864. 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  245 

road.^  Even  the  most  stable  of  the  railroad  companies, 
if  one  may  speak  of  stability  where  there  was  so 
little,  had  squandered  the  proceeds  of  their  farm 
mortgages  with  a  recklessness  that  bordered  on  the 
criminal.-  "In  the  history  of  the  financial  speculations 
of  this  country,"  declared  Governor  Randall  in  1861, 
"so  bold,  open,  unblushing  frauds,  taking  in  a  large 
body  of  men,  were  never  perpetrated.  There  was, 
and  is,  no  law  to  punish  them;  because  such  rascality 
could  not  have  been  anticipated."^ 

In  a  bitter  editorial  of  Sept.  8,  1860  the  Hartford 
Home  League,  a  weekly  paper  established  in  the  in- 
terests of  the  farm  mortgagors,  exposed  some  of  the 
methods  by  which  these  early  railroad  corporations 
defrauded  the  Wisconsin  farmers. 

1st.  They  took  stock  of  the  farmers  upon  the  express  condition  that 
the  roads  should  be  laid  in  certain  localities,  and  after  the  stock  was  thus 
obtained,  the  right  of  way  was  altered  to  suit  the  private  speculations  of 
the  directors. 

2nd.  They  made  out  false  reports  and  false  statements  in  order  to  show 
the  road  to  be  in  a  better  condition  than  it  really  was,  and  to  induce  the 
farmers  from  such  statements  to  mortgage  their  farms  for  stock. 

3rd.  They  issued  large  amounts  of  bogus  and  fictitious  stock  in  order 
to  overshadow  the  Farm  Mortgage  interest,  and  perpetuate  themselves 
in  office. 

4th.  They  sold  the  capital  stock  of  the  company  at  a  ruinous  discount 
in  order  to  raise  money  with  which  to  pay  semi-annual  dividends  that 
they  had  declared,  falsely  representing  that  the  money  thus  paid  out 
was  the  legitimate  earnings  of  the  road  over  and  above  expenses. 

^Ibid.,  Aug.  11,  1860  and  Oct.  24,  1863.  On  Nov.  8,  1863  this  paper 
estimated  that  only  half  of  the  mortgages  floating  about  the  market  at 
that  time  were  represented  by  completed  lines  of  road. 

2  The  Milwaukee  &  Superior  Railroad,  whose  affairs  were  investigated  by 
a  legislative  committee  in  1858,  presents  an  extreme  instance  of  such 
fraud.  See  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1858,  appendix.  See  also  Hartford  Home 
Leat/ue,  1860-64,  especially  Dec.  22,  1860;  Reply  to  Address  of  Farmers'  Gen- 
eral Home  League. 

3  "Annual  Message,"  1861,  11,  in  Wis.  Mess,  and  Docs.,  1861. 


246  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

5th.  They  colluded  with  each  other  and  made  contracts  with  themselves 
for  the  building  and  operating  of  the  road  at  the  most  extravagant  prices. 

6th.  They  bought  up  large  tracts  of  real  estate,  and  then  altered  the 
line  of  the  road  so  as  to  accommodate  their  own  land  and  enhance  the 
value  of  their  own  property. 

7th.  They  continued  to  take  Farm  Mortgages  when  they  knew  that 
their  corporations  were  bankrupt. 

The  farmers  of  southern  Wisconsin,  once  so  en- 
thusiastic over  the  alluring  scheme,  now  denounced 
it  as  a  deliberate  swindle.  Not  only  they  but  their 
most  prominent  public  servants  voiced  this  feeling. 
"The  railroad  mortgages,"  declared  Governor  Randall 
in  his  annual  message  of  1861,  "were  conceived  in 
fraud,  executed  in  fraud,  and  sold  or  transferred  in 
fraud. "^  It  was  easy  under  such  circumstances  for 
the  pioneers  of  Wisconsin  to  satisfy  themselves  that 
resistance  to  the  payment  of  such  debts  was  not  only 
justifiable  but  even  a  positive  virtue. 

It  was  obvious,  however,  that  individual  resistance 
would  be  worse  than  useless.  Only  by  union  could 
they  hope  to  defend  their  homes  against  foreclosure. 
Organized  resistance  to  law  was  by  no  means  un- 
famiUar  to  them.  In  a  somewhat  similar  predicament 
it  had  proved  entirely  effective.  When  the  first 
settlers  came  to  southern  Wisconsin  and  Iowa  the 
government  lands  had  not  yet  been  surveyed  or 
opened  to  pubhc  sale.  The  pioneers  had  simply 
squatted  upon  them  without  securing  a  legal  title. 
When  later  the  government  threw  their  improved 
farms  upon  the  open  market  they  were  in  danger  of 
losing  them  to  speculators  who  could  bid  more  than 
they  at  the  pubhc  auctions.  To  prevent  such  misfor- 
tunes   they    had     organized    "squatters'    protective 

1  Ibid. 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  247 

associations"  or  "claims  clubs,"  the  function  of  which 
was  to  attend  government  sales  en  masse  and  by 
intimidation  or  actual  violence  silence  undesirable 
bidders.  When,  as  occasionally  happened,  a  "claim 
jumper"  did  succeed  in  ousting  the  original  settler, 
he  was  either  ostracized  or  his  life  in  the  community 
was  made  a  burden.^  Some  of  the  men,  who  in  the 
thirties  and  forties  were  members  of  such  organiza- 
tions, were  in  the  later  fifties  and  sixties  entangled  in 
the  farm-mortgage  difficulty. 

Following  the  earlier  precedent,  the  endangered 
farmers  throughout  southern  Wisconsin  organized 
semi-secret  clubs  known  as  farm-mortgage  leagues. 
As  the  time  for  the  foreclosure  of  the  encumbrances 
drew  nearer  these  associations  became  more  numerous 
and  powerful.  A  Grand  State  League  and  two 
subsidiary  general  leagues  covering  all  southern 
Wisconsin  were  organized  in  the  summer  of  1860, 
at  the  regular  meetings  of  which  delegates  from  the 
several  local  branches  gathered  for  consultation. ^ 
Together  they  published  a  weekly  newspaper^  edited 

1  University  of  Wisconsin,  Bulletin,  No.  101,  91-98;  see  also  the  various 
local  and  county  histories  of  Wisconsin.  Iowa  conditions  are  described  in 
B.  F.  Shambaugh,  "Frontier  Land  Clubs  or  Claim  Associations,"  in 
American  Historical  Association,  Annual  Report,  1900,  I,  67-84. 

2  Compiled  from  references  in  Hartford  Home  League.  See  especially 
earlier  numbers. 

3  The  Hartford  Home  League  was  established  on  Aug.  11,  1860,  largely 
as  the  result  of  an  unfavorable  decision  by  the  Wisconsin  supreme  court 
in  the  important  railroad  farm-mortgage  case  of  Clark  v.  Farrington.  It 
ran  as  a  weekly  for  nearly  four  years,  suspending  on  Mar.  5,  1864  because 
of  lack  of  support.  In  its  place  a  number  of  independent  State  papers 
took  up  the  cause  of  the  mortgagors,  the  most  radical  of  which  were  the 
Madison  Argus  and  Democrat  and  the  Beaver  Dam  Argus.  The  latter  on 
July  20,  1864  constituted  itself  the  official  organ  of  the  mortgagors, 
lengthening  its  title  to  the  Beaver  Dam  Argus  and  Farm  Mortgage  League 
under  which  head  it  was  issued  until  Mar.  10,  1866. 


248  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

by  an  able  journalist,  who  later  presided  over  the 
lower  house  of  the  State  legislature.^  In  addition  to 
their  official  organ  they  had  numerous  independent 
weeklies  at  their  command.  Though  professing  to  be 
entirely  nonpolitical  in  character,  for  nearly  a  decade 
they  dictated  to  both  political  parties  in  the  State 
and  constituted  a  disturbing  factor  in  every  im- 
portant public  question. 

The  political  influence  of  these  organizations  was 
far  greater  than  their  numerical  strength  seemed  to 
indicate.  The  stern  issues  of  the  Civil  War  were 
rendering  elections  in  the  State  extremely  close, 
and  politicians  in  both  parties  realized  that  a 
doubtful  contest  might  at  any  time  be  swung  by 
their  organized  vote.  Outside  their  ranks,  moreover, 
they  had  numerous  supporters.  Though  they  were 
not  strong  in  the  larger  cities  of  Wisconsin,  the 
latter  fearing  that  organized  resistance  to  the  pay- 
ment of  lawful  debts  would  destroy  the  credit  of  the 
State,  they  were  upheld  almost  universally  by  the 
country  districts.  Sympathetic  neighbors,  citizens 
of  communities  oppressed  by  railroad  bonds,  and  a 
large  number  of  voters,  who  were  exasperated  at  the 
nation-wide  notoriety  which  the  legislative  scandal 

*  Thompson  abandoned  the  Hartford  Home  League  in  1864  to  become 
editor  and  part  proprietor  of  the  more  promising  Janesville  Gazette.  In 
1870  he  left  the  Gazette  to  become  editor  and  part  owner  of  the  Milwau- 
kee Sentinel,  at  that  time  the  most  influential  paper  in  the  State.  He 
was  much  interested  in  State  politics,  having  served  the  railroad  farm 
mortgagors  as  lobbyist  at  each  of  the  annual  sessions  of  the  legislature 
during  the  four  years  in  which  he  was  connected  with  their  cause.  In 
1868  and  1869  he  was  sent  to  the  legislature  by  the  assembly  district  of 
Janesville,  and  in  1869  was  chosen  by  the  Assembly  to  preside  over  its 
sessions  as  speaker.  He  was  at  various  times  prominently  mentioned  for 
nomination  as  governor  on  the  Republican  ticket,  but  although  ambitious 
for  the  honor,  he  never  secured  it. 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  249 

of  1856  had  brought  upon  the  State,  gave  them  their 
cooperation.^ 

It  was  important  for  the  farm  mortgagors  to 
control  local  officials,  such  as  sheriffs  and  registers  of 
deeds,  upon  whom  devolved  the  duty  of  executing 
foreclosure  judgments.  In  the  region  where  the 
mortgage  problem  was  acute  none  could  hope  for 
election  to  these  offices  except  those  whose  attitude 
toward  foreclosure  was  well  known.  "No  man  in  the 
vicinity,"  declared  a  Green  County  writer,  "has  any 
sight  for  an  office  of  trust,  profit,  or  honor,  in  the  gift 
of  the  people,  unless  he  is  known  to  be  'sound  on 
the  goose,'  and  any  attorney  who  dares  to  receive 
their  mortgages  for  collection,  has  a  poor  show  for 
anything  better  than  to  be  'hanging  around  loose' 
somewhere  in  some  out  of  the  way  locality  where 
solitude  is  the  chief  attraction."^  Not  infrequently 
successful  candidates  for  local  offices  were  them- 
selves prominent  members  of  the  farmer  leagues.' 

For  ultimate  success,  however,  the  mortgagors 
realized  that  they  must  look  primarily  to  remedial 
legislation.  It  was  in  this  conviction  that  one  of  their 
organs,  the  Beaver  Dam  Argus  and  Farm  Mortgage 
League,  thus  advised  them  on  Sept.  21,  1864:  "Within 
a  few  weeks  the  nominations  by  the  different  parties 
[for  the  legislature]  will  be  made,  they  are  beginning 
to  be  made  already,  and  consequently  now  is  the 
time  for  farmers  to  have  their  eyes  open.  The  farm 
mortgagors  should  attend  primary  meetings  and  con- 
ventions of  parties,  and  see  to  the  nominations;  be 

1  See  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1861,  318;  Hartford  Home  League,  1860-64. 

2  Ibid.,  Sept.  1.  1860. 

^Ibid.,  Feb.  23,  1861  and  Oct.  6,  1863;  Beaver  Dam  Argus.   Sept.  21, 

1864. 


250  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

sure  that  men  firmly  in  their  interests  are  nomi- 
nated, and  when  such  men  are  nominated,  then  they 
must  look  to  their  election."  It  is  impossible  at  this 
distance  to  determine  how  carefully  the  mortgagors 
followed  such  advice.  The  enactments  of  successive 
legislatures  sufficiently  tell  the  story. 

For  a  short  time  after  the  panic  of  1857  Wisconsin 
legislatures  were  called  upon  to  consider  State 
assumption  of  the  entire  mortgage  debt.  The  diffi- 
culty with  this  program  was  that  it  required  a  con- 
stitutional amendment,  and  it  was  soon  given  up  as 
impossible  of  attainment.  With  more  vigor  and  hope 
of  success  the  mortgagors  entered  upon  a  fight  to 
secure  from  Congress  a  modification  of  the  railroad 
land  grant  of  1856,  so  that  its  proceeds  might  be 
applied  to  the  cancellation  of  the  farm  encumbrances. 
Congressman  John  F.  Potter,^  himself  a  farm  mort- 
gagor, was  said  to  favor  this  step.  This  measure,  too, 
was  beyond  the  gift  of  the  legislature,  and  the  farmers 
demanded  immediate  relief. 

The  first  legislature  that  came  together  after  the 
panic  of  1857  pointed  out  the  way  of  escape.  It 
enacted  a  law  estabUshing  the  procedure  that  should 
govern  Wisconsin  courts  in  all  future  foreclosure 
suits  against  railroad  farm  mortgagors. ^  If  the  mort- 
gagor could  prove  to  the  satisfaction  of  a  court  or 

^  Popularly  known  in  the  North  as  "Bowie  Knife  Potter,  '  because  when 
challenged  by  Congressman  Roger  A.  Pryor  of  Virginia  to  a  duel,  in  the 
midst  of  the  secession  discussion  of  1860,  he  accepted  the  challenge  and  in 
a  spirit  of  grim  humor  selected  for  the  combat  a  pair  of  vicious-looking 
bowie  knives.  When  the  Virginian  Congressman  thereupon  indignantly 
withdrew,  declaring  he  was  not  a  butcher,  Potter  was  proclaimed  through- 
out the  North  as  the  hero  of  the  hour.  See  Thwaites,  Wisconsin,  329; 
see  also  Hartford  Home  League,  Sept.  1,  1860  and  Mar.  1,  1862. 

2  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1858,  chap.  49. 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  251 

a  jury  of  his  peers  that  he  had  been  induced  to  sign 
the  contested  security  by  fraudulent  representations 
of  the  railroad  stock  agent,  the  action  to  foreclose 
should  be  discharged  and  judgment  for  costs  should 
be  assessed  against  the  plaintilY.  This  would  have 
been  legal  as  well  as  equitable  if  in  all  such  actions 
the  plaintiff  had  been  the  party  guilty  of  the  original 
frauds.  Almost  invariably,  however,  he  was  an 
eastern  purchaser  who  could  not  be  presumed  to 
have  known  when  he  invested  in  the  mortgage  of 
the  methods  by  which  it  had  been  obtained.  The  law 
provided,  nevertheless,  that  the  defense  of  fraud 
should  apply  especially  to  such  purchasers;  in  fact 
it  forbade  their  offering  the  reply  that  they  were 
innocent  third  parties  in  the  transaction. 

This  unusual  measure  aroused  a  storm  of  protest 
throughout  the  East.  The  Wisconsin  legislature  was 
everywhere  charged  with  deliberately  releasing  its 
citizens  from  the  payment  of  their  just  debts.  Even 
in  the  commercial  centers  of  Wisconsin  the  bill  met 
vigorous  objection  as  being  discreditable  to  the  State. 
Despite  such  opposition,  however,  and  despite  the 
fact  that  similar  legislation  had  previously  been 
pronounced  unconstitutional  by  the  highest  tribunal 
in  the  State, ^  it  was  passed,  and  approved  by  Gov- 
ernor Randall.  It  no  sooner  reached  the  Wisconsin 
supreme  court  in  1860,  than  it  was  declared  invalid. ^ 

The  legislature,  however,  returned  to  the  fray  in 
1861  with  an  even  more  obviously  unconstitutional 
measure  popularly  known  as  the  farm-mortgage  stay 

^  See  Fisher  v.  Otis,  3  Pinney  78;  Martineau  v.  McColIum,  3  Pinney 
455. 

2  Clark  V.  Farrington,  11  Wis.  306;  Blunt  v.  Walker,  11  VV7s.  334; 
Cornell  v.  Hichens,  11  Wis.  353. 


252  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

law.^  It  was  drawn  by  several  astute  lawyers  em- 
ployed by  the  Grand  State  League,  and  contained 
twenty-seven  elaborate  sections.  One  of  the  latter 
reenacted  with  broader  applications  the  unconstitu- 
tional law  of  1858.  All  the  others  proposed,  by  one 
device  or  another,  so  to  impede,  handicap,  and  tax 
those  suing  to  foreclose  railroad  farm  mortgages  as 
to  render  the  successful  issue  of  such  actions  practi- 
cally impossible. 

Once  more  the  angry  East  stormed  and  fumed. 
One  writer  from  New  York,  after  setting  forth  the 
discredit  that  the  measure  would  cast  upon  Wis- 
consin and  the  suffering  that  it  would  inflict  upon  the 
small  holders  of  railroad  mortgages  in  the  East, 
concludes: 

Besides  in  these  times  of  secession  and  reprisal,  it  might  lead  to  un- 
pleasant reprisals  and  hostile  legislation  in  other  States,  which  might 
look  towards  retaliation.  Already  I  understand  a  petition  has  been  for- 
warded to  the  Legislature  of  this  State  [New  York]  by  citizens  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  holders  of  these  bonds,  praying  that  if  the  act  in  relation  to 
them  now  before  the  Wisconsin  legislature  should  pass,  that  aggrieved  citizens 
of  the  State  of  New  York  may  have  right  to  seize  the  property  of  citizens  of 
Wisconsin  found  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State  of  New  York  in  satisfac- 
tion of  their  mortgages.^ 

Protests  were  again  unavailing.  In  the  spring  of 
1861  the  measure  was  approved  by  the  legislature 
and  signed  by  Governor  Randall.  The  State  had 
thus  deUberately  deprived  eastern  investors  of  their 
only  means  of  enforcing  payment  of  the  mortgages 

^  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1861,  chap.  88.  See  also  J.  B.  Winslow,  Story  of  a 
Great  Court  (Chicago,  1912),  164-83.  This  work  contains  a  complete  ac- 
count of  the  railroad  farm-mortgage  movement  from  a  legal  point  of 
view.  I  have  made  liberal  use  of  the  valuable  data  which  it  contains.  See 
also  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Mar.  11  and  15, 1861. 

2  Ms.  letter  of  J.  Martin  to  Governor  Randall,  Mar.  14,  1861,  in  Wis- 
consin Historical  Library. 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  253 

they  held.  Wisconsin  stood  before  all  the  world  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  as  a  willful  repudiator 
of  her  lawful  debts.  Only  the  national  excitement 
over  the  southern  conflict  prevented  her  stay  law 
from  becoming  as  notorious  in  the  nation  as  had  been 
the  similar  relief  laws  of  Kentucky  in  1820.^  In  1862 
the  measure  was  brought  upon  appeal  before  the 
Wisconsin  supreme  court  and  was  there  curtly  dis- 
missed as  invalid. 2 

Balked  in  these  efforts  the  legislature  of  Wisconsin 
proceeded  upon  a  new  tack.  In  1862  it  adopted  a 
statute  authorizing,  though  not  compelling,  the 
several  railroad  corporations,  whose  predecessors  had 
received  farm  mortgages,  to  reimburse  the  makers 
in  certain  fixed  proportions.'  Needless  to  say  none 
of  the  Wisconsin  companies  availed  itself  of  the 
provisions  of  the  statute. 

Voluntary  restitution  having  thus  proved  futile, 
the  legislature  attempted  in  a  succeeding  session  to 
compel  the  most  prominent  Wisconsin  railroad  cor- 
poration, the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul,  to  retire  the 
mortgages  given  to  the  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  and 
the  Milwaukee  &  Horicon,^  two  lines  which  it  had 
taken  over.  The  method  by  which  this  was  to  be 
done  was  simple.  The  railroad  company  was  to  pay 
annually  into  a  State  sinking  fund  12  per  cent  of  its 
gross  earnings  until  sufficient  means  had  accumu- 
lated to  cancel  all  these  farm  encumbrances.  If  the 
company  neglected  to  comply  with  the  law,  the 
governor  was  to  appoint  a  receiver  to  take  charge  of 

^  Compare  W.  G.  Sumner,  Andrew  Jackson  (Boston,  1883),  chap.  6. 

2  Oatman  v.  Bond,  15  Wis.  20. 

3  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1862,  chap.  330. 
*  Id.,  1864,  chaps.  224  and  332. 


254  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

its  affairs.  This  legislation,  however,  was  so  obviously 
unconstitutional  that  the  governor  of  Wisconsin  did 
not  even  attempt  to  enforce  it.^ 

Notwithstanding  these  repeated  rebuffs,  Wisconsin 
legislatures  continued  undiscouraged  in  their  efforts 
to  relieve  the  farm  mortgagors.  That  of  1863  passed 
a  measure  which  substantially  reenacted  the  fraud 
defense  law  of  1858,  and  in  foreclosure  suits  provided 
for  a  jury  trial  the  verdict  of  which  should  be  con- 
clusive upon  the  facts  involved  in  each  case.^  In 
1864  so  much  of  this  law  as  applied  to  jury  trials  was 
reenacted  with  greater  defmiteness  and  more  binding 
force,  it  being  recognized  that  in  a  foreclosure  suit 
of  such  a  character  no  jury  of  Wisconsin  farmers 
would  decide  any  issue  of  fact  or  law  against  a  dis- 
tressed neighbor.^  For  a  third  time,  and  with  still 
wider  application,  such  a  measure  was  enacted  in 
1867,^  though  the  preceding  statute  had  in  the 
meantime  been  pronounced  unconstitutional  by  the 
Wisconsin  supreme  court. ^ 

From  1858  to  1863,  with  a  single  exception,  every 
Wisconsin  legislature  passed  one  or  more  measures, 
fourteen  in  all,  designed  to  relieve  the  railroad  farm 
mortgagors.^  Of  these,  three  were  merely  special  in 
application,  and  a  fourth  was  utterly  ignored.     The 

'  See  miscellaneous  railroad  manuscripts  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Libra- 
ry; see  also  Berlin  Courant,  Dec.  29,  1864. 

2  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1863,  chap.  305. 

3/rf.,  1864,  chap.  169. 

<  Id.,  1867,  chap.  79. 

5  Truman  v.  McCollum,  20  Wis.  360.  The  law  of  1867  was  pronounced 
unconstitutional  in  Callanan  v.  Judd,  23  Wis.  343. 

*  Most  of  these  have  already  been  cited  in  the  text.  Of  the  others  the 
more  important  were  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1859,  chap.  149;  1860,  chap.  231; 
1863,  chap.  123;  1864,  chap.  241. 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  255 

remaining  ten,  the  object  of  which  was  either  to  render 
impossible  the  foreclosure  of  the  mortgages  or  to 
compel  the  reorganized  railroad  companies  to  cancel 
them,  all  proved  unconstitutional.  Practically  the 
entire  legislative  program  of  the  railroad  mortgagors 
thus  ultimately  came  to  naught. 

It  must  not  be  concluded,  however,  that  these 
laws  were  entirely  without  result.  So  long  as  they 
remained  on  the  statute  books,  no  matter  how  ob- 
viously unconstitutional,  they  served  the  purpose 
of  frightening,  perplexing,  and  discouraging  eastern 
mortgage  holders,  and  making  them  willing  to  com- 
promise with  Wisconsin  farmers.  On  the  other  hand 
they  earned  for  the  State  an  unenviable  notoriety 
in  the  financial  circles  of  the  East,  which  for  many 
years  hindered  and  embarrassed  its  public  and  pri- 
vate enterprises. 

The  governors  of  Wisconsin,  like  the  legislatures, 
gave  to  the  railroad  mortgagors  their  sympathy  and 
support.  Only  in  a  single  instance  did  the  repudia- 
tory  enactments  of  successive  legislatures,  all  clearly 
unconstitutional,  meet  the  check  of  the  executive 
veto.^  Undoubtedly  this  was  due  in  part  to  the 
narrow  majorities  by  which  Wisconsin  governors 
were  elected  during  the  critical  war  period.  In  1861 
Harvey  was  chosen  by  a  majority  of  but  8,300  out 
of  a  total  vote  of  100,000;  in  1865  Fairchild  received 
a  majority  of  but  9,000  out  of  a  total  vote  of  105,000.- 

In  the  gubernatorial  campaign  of  1861  the  Demo- 

1  Governor  Salomon,  who  came  to  office  not  by  election  but  by  succes- 
sion to  the  deceased  Har\^ey,  vetoed  a  railroad  mortgage  measure  in  1863. 
It  was,  however,  promptly  passed  over  his  head  and  became  Wis.  Gen. 
Laws,  1863,  chap.  123. 

2  Wis.  Legislative  Manual,  1862,  153;  id.,  1866,  198. 


256  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

cratic  candidate,  Benjamin  Ferguson,  was  himself 
a  railroad  mortgagor  and,  according  to  the  Hartford 
Home  League,  would  never  have  received  the  nom- 
ination but  for  this  fact.^  Of  the  Union  candidate 
the  same  paper  wrote:  "We  will  say  here  that  we 
have,  in  our  possession,  evidence  of  the  most  con- 
clusive and  satisfactory  character,  touching  the 
soundness  of  Mr.  Harvey,  on  the  point  in  question 
[railroad  mortgages],  and  we  had  personal  cognizance 
of  the  fact  that  our  friends  in  the  Republican  Con- 
vention, had  the  fullest  assurance  from  the  right 
quarter,  before  they  cast  their  votes  for  Mr.  Harvey. "^ 
In  the  election  of  1863  the  Democratic  machine 
committed  the  error  of  nominating  for  its  candidate 
Henry  L.  Palmer,  a  man  who  had  served  the  La 
Crosse  &  Milwaukee  Railroad  as  a  lawyer  during  its 
most  corrupt  days  under  Byron  Kilbourn.  With  the 
exception  of  the  war  issue  this  unfortunate  connec- 
tion, which  was  promptly  uncovered  by  the  Repub- 
lican press,  formed  the  most  prominent  text  for  the 
campaign.  Palmer  was  denounced  by  the  Hartford 
Home  League  as  the  tool  of  the  "corruptionists" 
and  "consolidationists"  and  the  "graduate  of  the 
meanest  corporation  that  ever  disgraced  any  state."' 
On  the  other  hand  James  T.  Lewis,  the  Republican 
candidate,  was  warmly  commended  as  the  "constant 
friend  and  faithful  counsellor  of  the  mortgagors,"^ 
who  if  elected  would  sanction  with  pleasure  anything 
that  could  with  propriety  be  done  for  their  relief. 

» Hartford  Home  League,  Nov.  16,  1861. 
^Ibid.,  Nov.  2,  1861. 

2  Portage  Register,  Aug.  8  and  Sept.  5,  1863.    See  also  Hartford  Home 
League  for  all  issues  embracing  the  campaign. 
*Ibid.,  Aug.  29,  1863. 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  257 

On  Nov.  4,  1863  Lewis  was  elected  with  the  unusual 
majority  for  that  time  of  23,363  out  of  a  total  vote 
of  133,820.^  No  doubt  recurring  confidence  in  the 
Republican  party  as  the  result  of  Federal  successes 
at  Vicksburg  and  Gettysburg,  as  well  as  the  large 
personal  popularity  of  Lewis  in  the  State,  had  much 
to  do  with  this  majority.  Yet  there  can  hardly  be 
any  question  that  it  was  due  in  greater  part  to  the 
united  vote  which  the  farm  mortgagors  gave  him. 

Fixed  squarely,   however,  between  friendly  State 
authorities  and  the  farmers  stood  the  supreme  court 
of  Wisconsin.     It  availed  little  that  one  statute  after 
another  was  hurried  to  enactment.   One  after  another 
this  resolute  tribunal  pronounced  them  void.     The 
position  taken  by  the  court  was  logical.   The  railroad 
companies,  it  declared,  had  been  given  ample  legal 
authority  to  accept  mortgages  in  payment  of  stock; 
they  had  power  to  sell  or  assign  these  securities  to 
third    parties;    the    sales    had    been    for    a    valuable 
consideration  and  were  therefore  legal;    unless  posi- 
tive proof  was  presented  to  the  contrary   the    pur- 
chasers  must  be   presumed   to   have   acted   without 
knowledge  of  the  fraud  by  which  the  mortgages  had 
originally   been   obtained;   having   acted   thus,    they 
stood    before    the    law    as    bona    fide    and    innocent 
holders;  their  securities  were  therefore  protected  by 
the    constitutional    provision    which    prohibited    the 
State  legislature  from  passing  any  law  impairing  the 
obligation    of    an    existing    contract. ^      This    stand, 
however  distasteful  and  disastrous  to  the  farmers  of 

i\Vis.  Legislative  Manual,  1864,  182. 

2  Consult  Wisconsin  Law  Reporter,  especially  cases  cited  elsewhere  in  this 
chapter.  See  also  for  an  excellent  account,  Winslow,  Story  of  a  Court, 
164-83. 


258  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Wisconsin,  was  undoubtedly  correct.  To  it  the 
supreme  bench  held  unfalteringly.  In  vain  did  the 
lower  courts  of  the  State  rebel  ;^  in  vain  did  the  rail- 
road mortgagors  thunder  invectives;  in  vain  did 
political  disaster  threaten  this  elective  tribunal — 
it  remained  unshaken. 

It  was  a  fairly  well-established  principle  in  Wis- 
consin in  1861  that  judges  of  the  supreme  court 
should  be  elected  wholly  on  the  basis  of  honesty  and 
fitness  for  office.  The  impropriety  of  selecting  a 
magistrate  because  of  his  known  views  on  public  or 
private  questions  likely  to  come  before  him  for 
adjudication  was  generally  recognized.  The  farm 
mortgagors,  however,  were  in  too  desperate  straits 
to  heed  a  mere  convention.  Their  only  chance  for 
saving  their  homes  lay  in  reconstructing  the  supreme 
court  in  such  a  way  as  to  secure  from  it  more  favor- 
able interpretation  in  the  future  of  laws  that  their 
legislatures  gave  them. 

Their  first  attempt  to  accomplish  this  end  was  made 
in  1861,  when  Orsamus  Cole,  one  of  the  three  sitting 
justices,  came  up  for  reelection. ^  It  was  the  practice 
at  this  time,  though  already  falling  into  disuse,  for 
political  parties  to  nominate  or  indorse  judicial 
candidates.  The  Republican  party,  to  which  Cole 
owed  his  original  election,  was  in  a  quandary.  It  did 
not  wholly  approve  his  political  views,  and  it  desired 
to  placate  the  farm-mortgage  element  in  its  ranks. 
On  the  other  hand    it   was  unwilling  completely  to 

1  According  to  the  Hartford  Home  League  of  June  22,  1861  eight  out  of 
the  ten  circuit  courts  of  the  State  disagreed  with  the  supreme  court  in 
this  position. 

^  For  a  fuller  discussion  of  the  judicial  campaign  here  referred  to,  see 
Winslow,  Story  of  a  Court,  164-83. 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  259 

surrender  to  the  latter.  It  compromised,  therefore, 
by  placing  no  candidate  in  nomination,  leaving  Cole 
to  run  as  an  independent.  The  mortgagors  promptly 
nominated  James  H.  Knowlton  of  Janesville,  a 
Republican  lawyer  of  brilliant  attainments  and  con- 
siderable prominence,  who  had  won  recognition  as 
their  greatest  legal  champion.  The  Democratic 
nominee  having  withdrawn  early  from  the  contest, 
the  election  was  left  to  be  fought  out  on  the  farm- 
mortgage  issue. 

The  campaign  was  hotly  contested.  Knowlton  was 
widely  denounced  as  a  repudiationist  and  a  candi- 
date willing  to  run  for  high  judicial  ofTice  under  a 
pledge.  The  canvass  resulted  in  a  victory  for  Cole, 
but  by  the  very  narrow  majority  of  5,000  votes. ^  Al- 
though defeated,  the  farm  mortgagors  found  comfort 
in  one  obvious  deduction  from  the  results  of  the  cam- 
paign. They  had  demonstrated  that  they  held  the 
balance  of  political  power  and  that,  as  long  as  their 
organization  should  be  kept  up,  neither  party  would 
dare  to  ignore  their  support. - 

Two  years  later,  in  the  spring  of  1863,  the  term  of 
Chief-Justice  Dixon  expired.  He  had  been  elected 
in  1860  when  little  was  known  concerning  either 
his  own  or  his  opponent's  position  upon  the  question 
of  the  railroad  mortgages.  In  that  contest  friends  of 
Dixon  had  claimed  to  know  that  their  candidate  was 
not  unsympathetic  to  the  stand  of  the  farmers.' 
Many  of  the  latter  had  undoubtedly  voted  for  him 
upon  this  supposition.    What  was  their  dismay  when 

1  Wis.  Secretary  of  State,  Report,  1861,  297. 

2  Hartford  Home  League,  Aug.  10,  1861. 
'  Winslow,  Story  of  a  Court,  137-41. 


260  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Dixon  not  only  agreed  with  his  associates  in  the 
hostile  Clark  v.  Farrington  decision  shortly  after  his 
election,  but  he  himself  in  no  uncertain  language 
wrote  a  similar  verdict  in  the  case  of  Blunt  v.  Walker. 
The  mortgagors  were  furious;  they  asserted  they 
had  been  betrayed,  and  wildly  demanded  an  im- 
peachment. As  a  result  of  that  treachery,  declared 
the  La  Crosse  Union: 

Thousands  of  little  farms,  with  their  white  cottages,  or  more  humble 
cabin— the  growing  crops — the  labor  of  years — the  result  of  toil — the 
earnings,  of  honest  men,  *  *  *  [would  all  be]  swept  into  the  pockets  of 
Railroad  owners,  as  a  roulette  keeper  sweeps  the  dollars  into  the  bag  un- 
derneath his  table,  and  turns  again  to  catch  new  victims.  It  may  be  an 
honor  to  legalize  fraud,  but  it  is  not  honest,  nor  is  it  humanity.  There  is 
scarce  a  county  in  the  State  but  soon  will  see  going  forth  from  the  little 
homes  hallowed  by  joy  and  made  sacred  with  grief,  leaving  a  loved  fire- 
side wet  with  tears,  a  caravan  of  broken  hearts  and  blasted  hopes — wend- 
ing its  way  on  toward  the  golden  sunset,  where  fraud,  trickery,  and  dis- 
honesty is  not  yet  in  the  full  tide  of  successful  operation. ^ 

When,  therefore,  Judge  Dixon  came  up  for  re- 
election in  1863  the  mortgagors  to  a  man  were 
determined  that  he  should  be  defeated.  The  Demo- 
cratic judicial  convention,  which  assembled  in  Mad- 
ison early  in  the  spring  of  1863,  long  considered  him 
for  nomination.  His  doubtful  political  status,  how- 
ever, and  the  keen  opposition  of  the  mortgagors 
made  him  unavailable.  M.  M.  Cothren  secured  the 
party  endorsement  by  a  narrow  majority.  The 
Republican  caucus  after  two  sittings  likewise  refused 
to  place  Dixon  in  nomination  for  much  the  same 
reasons  as  had  guided  the  course  of  the  Democrats. 
Again  the  party  placed  no  one  in  the  field,  contenting 
itself  with  a  half-hearted  resolution  of  confidence  in 

^  Extract  from  La  Crosse  Union,  printed  in  Hartford  Home  League,  Aug. 
11,  1860. 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  261 

the  integrity  of  the  chief-justice.  The  latter,  en- 
couraged by  the  success  of  Cole  two  years  before, 
determined  to  run  independently. 

The  campaign  was  marked  by  even  more  bitterness 
than  the  canvass  of  1860.  Dixon  was  ridiculed  by  the 
mortgagors  as  "the  boy  judge, "^  the  candidate  of 
the  foreclosure  lawyers,  and  the  tool  of  corrupt 
railroads,-  while  Cothren  was  denounced  by  his 
opponents  as  a  Copperhead,  a  drunkard,  a  barroom 
campaigner,  and  a  pledged  judicial  candidate.^  The 
mortgagors,  though  predominantly  RepubUcan  and 
loyal  in  sentiment,  entered  the  campaign  as  an 
organization  for  the  Democrat,  the  Grand  State 
League  having  given  him  its  endorsement  at  its 
Milwaukee  convention  in  March,  ISeS."*  The  election 
was  long  in  doubt,  the  Democratic  press  in  the  mean- 
time jubilantly  proclaiming  the  triumph  of  its  candi- 
date. Indeed,  it  appeared  that  Cothren  had  won,  for 
in  the  home  vote  he  had  received  56,840  votes 
against  51,948  for  Dixon.  The  returns  were  still  to 
come  from  the  army,  however,  and  here  Cothren's 
supposed  Copperhead  leanings  affected  him  disas- 
trously. The  military  vote  turned  the  election, 
Judge  Dixon  winning  by  a  majority  of  3,000  votes. ^ 

Defeated  in  their  crucial  fight  to  capture  the  State 
judiciary  the  farmers  of  Wisconsin  w^ere  confronted 
with  three  dismal  alternatives.    They  must  pay  their 

iThe  Wisconsin  court,  like  the  judiciaries  of  most  frontier  states,  was 
composed  of  young  men.    See  Winslow,  Story  of  a  Court,  202-15. 

•  See  Hartford  Home  League  for  the  spring  of  1863;  also  Winslow,  Story 
of  a  Court,  202-15. 

3  Ibid.;  Hartford  Home  League  for  the  spring  of  1863. 

*  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Feb.  6,  1863  and  Mar.  27,  1863. 
5  Wis.  Secretary  of  State,  Report,  1863,  172. 


262  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

encumbrances,  doubled  as  they  usually  were  by  the 
neglected  interest  of  ten  or  twelve  years,  or  submit  to 
foreclosure,  or  resist  the  enforcement  of  the  law. 
Most  of  them  were  unable,  even  if  they  had  been 
willing,  to  pay  their  debts,  and  numbers  of  fore- 
closures took  place  under  the  most  sorrowful  circum- 
stances. Not  infrequently  families  were  evicted  from 
their  homes  after  having  lost  their  only  bread-winners 
upon  distant  southern  battle-fields.^  In  a  letter 
to  Governor  Lewis  written  just  before  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War  a  farmer  narrates  an  instance  of 
this  kind  which  he  declares  was  but  one  of  many  in 
his  immediate  neighborhood:  "An  old  man,  a  neigh- 
bor of  mine,  had  two  boys — his  only  dependence — 
killed  in  the  army  the  past  summer.  He  is  now  over 
60  &  nearly  past  labor.  He  was  sued  a  few  days  since 
on  a  mortgage  given  in  aid  of  the  La  Crosse  &  Mil. 
R.  R.  &  he  is  entirely  unable  to  meet  it.  Poor  old 
man!  He  &  his  old  wife  must  bear  it  peaceably,  &  go 
to  the  poor-house  without  a  murmur. "^ 

There  were  some  instances  of  resistance  to  the  law, 
the  local  farm-mortgage  leagues  reenacting  at  fore- 
closure sales  almost  the  same  scenes  as  had  marked 
the  activities  of  the  Wisconsin  and  Iowa  squatters' 
protective  associations  twenty  years  before.  The 
Berlin  Courant  on  Dec.  29,  1864  printed  the  following 
highly  suggestive  account  of  such  a  proceeding: 

A  case  of  attempted  sale  occurred  in  the  city  [Berlin]  on  Tuesday  which 
shows  a  spirit  on  the  part  of  the  Leaguers  which  timid  men  will  not  care 
to  brave.    A  sale  had  been  advertised  to  come  off,  and  in  the  interim  the 

'  See  manuscript  letters  relating  to  farm-mortgage  movement,  in  Wis- 
consin Historical  Library;  also  file  of  Hartford  Home  League. 

2  Ms.  letter  of  J.  A.  Roberts  to  Governor  Lewis,  Feb.  2,  1865,  in  Wis- 
consin Historical  Library. 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  263 

owner  of  the  advertised  property  [the  farm  mortgagor]  had  attempted  to 
compromise,  offering  what  was  generally  agreed  was  a  liberal  sum,  to 
settle.  The  offer  was  refused,  and  the  sherilT  directed  to  sell  the  property. 
The  day  of  sale  came  around,  and  so  did  the  sheriff,  and  so  did  a  hundred, 
more  or  less,  stalwart  men,  who  wanted  to  see  fair  play.  The  defendant 
was  anxious  that  the  sale  should  proceed,  but  the  plaintiff  did  not  appear, 
and  no  one  could  be  induced  to  bid  on  the  property  in  his  behalf.  As 
the  sheriff  could  not  sell  under  the  circumstances,  without  violating  his 
instructions,  he  adjourned  the  sale  till  the  first  day  of  February  next 
when  the  dance  will  begin  again.  No  doubt  spectators  will  be  numerous 
on  the  occasion,  as  the  interest  in  the  case  does  not  abate  in  the  least. ^ 

Another  method  of  discouraging  foreclosure  pro- 
ceedings is  recounted  in  the  Madison  Argus  of 
January,  1861.  "Some  excitement  was  created  in 
Prairie  du  Chien  on  January  9  by  a  demonstration 
against  a  Milwaukee  lawyer,  Mr.  Small,  who  was  in 
Prairie  du  Chien  preparing  some  extracts  and  minutes 
at  the  county  office  to  commence  foreclosure  of  some 
thirty  of  the  farm  mortgages.  His  object  being  dis- 
covered, a  large  body  of  men  took  peaceable  posses- 
sion of  him,  and  shut  him  up,  burned  his  papers,  and 
kept  him  close  till  the  next  train  started,  when  he 
was  put  on  board  and  'ticketed  through  to  Mil- 
waukee.' "2  In  those  cases  in  which  foreclosure  sales 
were  successfully  effected,  the  purchasers  were  likely 
to  fmd  themselves  either  completely  ostracized  or 
roughly  hazed. 

The  limits  to  which  the  mortgagors  were  willing 
to  go  in  their  desperation  were  set  forth  in  a  formal 

*  The  situation  at  Berlin  was  so  threatening  that  Governor  Lewis  felt 
called  upon  on  Jan.  30,  1865  to  issue  a  proclamation,  kindly  yet  firm, 
warning  the  mortgagors  against  resistance  to  the  law.  See  Milwaukee 
Sentinel,  Feb.  1,  1865.  The  sale  eventually  came  off  without  disturbance. 
Complete  details  may  be  secured  from  miscellaneous  manuscripts  in  Wis- 
consin Historical  Library  concerning  the  railroad-mortgage  difficulty. 

2  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  16,  1861;  see  also  Hartford  Home  League, 
Jan.  19,  1861. 


264  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

address  sent  by  their  State  League  to  the  Milwaukee 
<k  Mississippi  Railroad  Company  in  the  winter  of 
1860.^  No  Wisconsin  document  of  this  entire  period, 
not  even  those  pertaining  to  the  Civil  War,  surpasses 
in  intense  and  dramatic  human  interest  this  simple 
statement  of  her  imperiled  farmers.  Restrained 
indignation,  pathos,  defiance,  denunciation,  spring 
from  every  burning  sentence.  The  entire  unhappy 
history  of  the  mortgages  passes  under  review.  The 
agents  who  induced  the  farmers  to  sign  them  are 
described — men  of  winning  personality,  highly  re- 
spected in  their  communities,  prominent  in  their 
churches,  but  corrupt  at  heart.  Vividly  are  pictured 
the  methods  they  employed,  the  dazzling  promises 
they  held  forth,  the  skill  with  which  they  played 
upon  the  noblest  and  the  meanest  passions  of  their 
victims.  There  follows  a  recital  of  the  fraud  and 
mismanagement  that  wrecked  the  railroads  while  it 
enriched  their  officials  and  directors.  As  a  result, 
aged  men  and  widowed  mothers  were  about  to  lose 
their  homes,  the  sole  accumulation  of  a  hard  life. 
Would  not  the  company  come  to  their  rescue,  would 
it  not  cancel  these  obligations,  would  it  not  restore 
peace  and  good  feeling  along  its  line?  Or  would  it 
force  law-abiding  citizens  to  desperation,  to  violence 
against  life  and  property?  They  were  prepared  for 
either,  they  would  defend  their  homes  against  cor- 
rupt railroads,  greedy  eastern  speculators,  venal 
courts,  and  all  the  world  besides. 

"But  suppose  it  should  result  at  last  that  we  have 
no  good  [legal]  defence;  or  if  we  have,  cannot  enforce 

1  Ibid.,  Dec.  22,  1860.     For  other  addresses  of  a  similar  character  see 
ibid.,  Sept.  22  and  Oct.  6,  1860,  and  Jan.  12,  1861. 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  265 

it;  when  you  have  foiled  us  in  the  Courts,  and  we  can 
make  no  further  struggle  there — how  are  you  to 
dispossess  us?  Will  you  force  us  from  our  homes? 
When  you  resort  to  force,  this  promise  we  will  keep, 
though  it  should  be  the  last:— We  will  meet  that  force 
in  kind.  In  doing  this,  we  shall  not  stop  to  reckon 
how  much  we  can  bleed  and  live.  With  our  lives  only, 
will  we  render  up  our  firesides." 

Some  violence  to  railroad  property  actually  fol- 
lowed. Obstructions  were  placed  upon  tracks,  rails 
were  displaced,  and  trestlework  was  injured. ^  In 
Ozaukee  and  Washington  counties  excited  Germans 
set  fire  to  a  depot  building,  destroyed  several  railroad 
bridges,  cut  telegraph  poles,  and  tore  up  track  upon 
the  line  of  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railway.  The 
latter  corporation  found  it  necessary  toward  the 
close  of  1865  to  abandon  its  night  passenger  service 
between  Milwaukee  and  Portage  on  account  of  the 
danger  of  such  outrages. ^ 

Fortunately  most  of  the  farmers  of  Wisconsin 
were  able  to  adjust  their  difficulties  by  other  means 
than  open  violence.  In  many  cases  they  came  to 
settlements,  favorable  on  the  whole,  with  eastern 
holders,  who  were  either  too  far  distant  to  be  able  to 
press  their  claims  vigorously  or  were  discouraged  by 
the  successive  stay  laws  of  Wisconsin  legislatures. 
Probably  not  many  Wisconsin  farmers  paid  up  their 

1  Ms.  letter  of  L.  H.  Meyers,  president  of  the  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du 
Chien  Railroad,  to  Governor  Harvey,  April  3,  1862,  in  Wisconsin  His- 
torical Library;  Hartford  Home  League,  Feb.  9  and  Aug.  10,  1861,  and 
Feb.  15,  1862. 

2  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Dec.  2,  1865;  New  York  Times,  Nov.  30,  186o; 
La  Crosse  Democrat,  Dec.  4,  1865;  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Dec.  5, 1865  and  Jan. 
9,  1867. 


266  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

mortgages  dollar  for  dollar.  In  frequent  instances  the 
securities  were  sent  to  lawyers  in  the  cities  of  southern 
Wisconsin  to  be  cancelled  at  from  45  to  55  per  cent 
of  their  face  value. ^ 

Several  prominent  railroad  companies  likewise 
compromised  with  their  mortgagors  upon  terms  that 
silenced  at  least  the  most  active  unrest  along  their 
lines.  The  Milwaukee  &  Mississippi  Railroad  made 
particularly  gratifying  concessions.  When  it  was 
reorganized  in  1861  as  the  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du 
Chien  Company  the  stock  held  by  its  mortgagors  was 
exchanged  in  the  ratio  of  two  shares  of  the  new  stock 
for  three  shares  of  the  old.^  The  former,  it  is  true, 
was  worth  but  12  cents  on  the  dollar  at  the  time  of 
the  exchange,^  and  many  disheartened  farmers  did 
not  even  trouble  to  make  the  substitution.  In  the 
summer  of  1862,  however,  by  virtue  of  an  agreement 
with  a  committee  of  mortgagors,  the  new  company 
undertook  to  retire  all  of  its  farm  encumbrances.^ 
The  farmers  were  to  surrender  the  stock  which  they 
held,  in  addition  to  which  such  of  them  as  had 
signed  8  per  cent  mortgages  should  pay  upon  them 
one-tenth  of  the  principal  and  such  as  had  signed  10 
per  cent  mortgages  should  pay  one-fourth  of  the 
principal.    Upon  these  liberal  terms  mortgages  to  the 

*  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  Aug.  16,  1860;  Hartford  Home  League,  Oct. 
18,  1862  and  Aug.  15,  1863;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  22,  1864. 

2  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  Railway  Company,  Report,  1865,  18-19; 
"Circular  to  Stockholders,"  2,  3,  bound  with  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du 
Chien  Railway  Company,  Reports,  1861-66,  No.  9;  Hartford  Home  League, 
Nov.  24,  1860  and  Nov.  30,  1861. 

^HunVs  Merchants'  Magazine,  October,  1865,  297;  New  York  World, 
Mar.  4,  1861. 

^  Hartford  Home  League,  Sept.  27,  1862.  An  arrangement  of  a  similar 
nature  was  made  with  the  Milwaukee  &  Watertown  Railroad.  Ibid., 
July  18,  1863,  and  Feb.  20,  1864. 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  267 

amount  of  approximately  $500,000  were  eventually 
satisfied.^ 

Those  farmers  who  for  one  reason  or  another  did 
not  take  advantage  of  this  arrangement  secured 
even  better  terms.  The  shares  of  the  Milwaukee  & 
Prairie  du  Chien  Railroad  rose  in  value  by  the  middle 
of  1863,  under  an  honest  board  of  directors,  to  90 
cents  on  the  dollar,  and  at  that  rate  many  were 
exchanged  for  farm  encumbrances.^  Altogether  about 
700  or  800  farmers  on  this  line  escaped  foreclosure  by 
such  settlements.^ 

The  settlement  on  the  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  line 
was  less  satisfactory.  It  consisted  in  turning  over  to 
an  association  known  as  the  Wisconsin  Railroad 
Farm  Mortgage  Land  Company  so  much  of  the  rail- 
road grant  of  1856  as  the  La  Crosse  company  had 
earned  by  building  its  road  from  Portage  to  Tomah. 
The  lands  were  to  be  sold  by  commissioners  of  the 
State,  and  the  proceeds  were  to  be  divided  among  the 
mortgagors  of  the  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  Railroad 
and  the  Milwaukee  &  Horicon  Railroad.^  Such  an 
adjustment  had  been  suggested  by  Governor  Randall 
in  1860  and  1861,  and  in  1868  Congress  was  willing 
to  give  its  consent.^ 

Even  in  this  poor  attempt  at  restitution,  mis- 
fortune and  scandal  pursued  the  farm  mortgagors. 
The  meager  proceeds  of  their  lands  were  irregularly, 

1  Janesville  Gazette,  Oct.  3,  1862;  New  York  Herald,  Nov.  8,  1862. 

2  Hunt's  Merchants'  Magazine,  October,  1865,  297;  Milwaukee  Daily 
Wis.,  Sept.  7,  1863;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Aug.  17,  1863;  Hartford  Home 
League,  Nov.  21,  1863;  Janesville  Gazette,  Aug.  9,  1864;  Wis.  Gen.  Laws, 
1864,  chap.  241. 

3  Janesville  Gazette,  Aug.  9,  1864. 

*  Wis.  Private  Laws,  1868,  chap.  446. 

'  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large,  40  Cong.,  2  sess.,  chap.  267. 


268  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

if  not  corruptly,  administered  by  the  commissioners 
to  whom  they  were  entrusted.  As  an  example,  one  of 
the  presidents  of  the  board  secured  for  his  son  nearly 
$10,000  in  attorney's  fees,  though  he  was  unable  to  state 
under  examination  the  nature  of  the  services  for  which 
about  $6,000  of  this  amount  had  been  paid.^ 

Suspicious,  also,  were  the  circumstances  under 
which  the  major  portion  of  the  land  grant  was  sold. 
Approximately  two-thirds  of  it,  amounting  to  about 
160,000  acres,  had  originally  been  involved  in  liti- 
gation, being  claimed  not  only  by  the  mortgagors 
but  by  several  railroad  corporations.  The  title 
of  the  mortgagors,  though  contested,  was  as  per- 
fect as  any  litigated  title  could  well  be,  and  was 
confirmed  to  them  in  1879  by  a  unanimous  decision 
of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court. ^  Upon  appeal 
the  case  was  carried  to  the  supreme  court,  where  it 
lay  for  several  years. 

While  pending  there,  the  board  of  commissioners, 
at  the  instance  of  its  president,  sold  to  Philetus 
Sawyer,  who  represented  the  opposing  party  in  the 
suit,  the  entire  claim  of  the  mortgagors  for  a  sum 
representing  less  than  a  third  of  the  reputed  value 
of  the  contested  lands.  The  mortgagors  should  have 
obtained  nearly  half  a  million  dollars  for  this  portion 
of  their  grant;  they  actually  received  but  $136,000.^ 

Charges  of  corruption  were  at  once  raised  against 
the   transaction,   forcing   the   legislature   to   appoint 

'  "Report"  of  Committee  of  Investigation,  in  Wis.  Assem.  Jour., 
1883,  app.  4,  33-35.  See  also  the  books  and  papers  of  Wisconsin  Railroad 
Farm  Mortgage  Land  Company  in  office  of  Wisconsin  secretary  of  state. 

^  Ibid.;  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1883,  app.  4,  33-35;  Madison  &  Portage 
Railroad  Company  v.  Wisconsin  et  al..  Federal  Cases,  No.  8938. 

'  See  references  cited  above,  note  1. 


RAILROAD  FARM  MORTGAGES  269 

a  committee  of  investigation.  The  latter  found  many 
evidences  of  irregular  management  and  severely 
criticized  the  sale,  but  was  unable  to  establish  the 
charges  of  collusion.^  To  the  mortgagors  it  mattered 
little  whether  their  loss  was  due  to  fraud  or  to  a 
gross  business  error.  The  important  fact  to  them 
was  that  they  had  been  deprived  of  even  the  pittance 
that  should  have  come  to  them. 

Altogether  the  commissioners  of  the  Wisconsin 
Railroad  Farm  Mortgage  Land  Company  realized 
from  the  sale  of  lands  $280,267,  of  which  they  con- 
sumed in  the  way  of  expenses  considerably  more  than 
one-seventh.  The  remainder  they  distributed  to  the 
1,024  farm  mortgagors  whose  claims,  amounting  to 
a  total  of  11^1,311,749,  they  had  audited  and  approved. - 
At  the  end  of  1883  they  turned  their  affairs  over  to 
a  regular  department  of  the  State  government, 
bringing  to  a  close  this  last  unhappy  chapter  in  the 
history  of  the  railroad  farm  mortgagors. 

By  one  means  or  another  most  of  the  railroad 
encumbrances  in  the  State  were  cancelled  before  the 
end  of  the  sixties,  and  the  tension  of  the  problem  was 
relieved.  But  popular  feeling  was  by  no  means  over. 
In  the  course  of  the  difTiculty  many  sturdy  Wisconsin 
pioneers  had  been  evicted  from  their  homesteads, 
larger  numbers  had  suffered  serious  losses,  and  all 
had  for  years  endured  agonies  of  uncertainty  as  to 
their  ultimate  fate.  Nothing  could  persuade  such 
men  that  railroad  ofTicials  were  not  elementally  and 
thoroughly  villainous.   Before  many  years  they  found 

1  See  references  cited  ante,  268,  note  1. 

2  Wisconsin  Railroad  Farm  Mortgage  Land  Company  Commissioners, 
Substitute  Report,  Dec.  1,  1883,  5. 


270  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

vent  for  their  enmity  in  the  rush  of  retaliatory  legis- 
lation that  marked  the  Granger  uprising  in  Wisconsin. 

Thus  during  the  period  of  the  Civil  War  Wisconsin 
met  the  problem  that  had  confronted  common- 
wealths elsewhere  and  at  other  times  in  the  form  of 
state  indebtedness.  Her  farmers,  it  is  clear,  became 
entangled  in  the  snare  chiefly  because  her  basic  law 
estopped  promoters  from  the  usual  procedure  of 
tapping  the  public  treasury.  The  framers  of  the  Wis- 
consin constitution  had  failed  to  foresee  that  a  power- 
ful public  demand,  halted  at  one  obstruction,  merely 
finds  other  outlets  for  expression. 

To  the  historian  the  railroad  farm-mortgage  upris- 
ing is  chiefly  significant  because  of  the  degree  to 
which  it  typifies  the  reactions  of  the  pioneer  West. 
In  origin,  methods,  and  results  it  was  a  characteristic 
frontier  movement.  Viewed  in  the  cold  light  of 
law  it  was  clearly  an  attempt  at  repudiation.  It  was 
the  revolt  of  an  organized  debtor  class  against  an 
absent  creditor  class.  Southern  Wisconsin  repre- 
sented the  former — thousands  of  sufTering  farmers 
and  their  scores  of  thousands  of  sympathetic  friends. 
The  East  represented  the  latter — thousands  of  se- 
curity holders  who,  in  part  at  least,  had  invested  their 
money  in  good  faith.  The  two  groups  were  separated  by 
too  great  a  distance  to  be  able  to  temper  or  even  to  under- 
stand the  position  one  of  the  other.  The  mortgagors  re- 
garded the  mortgagees  as  greedy  speculators,  who  in  the 
hope  of  winning  illicit  gain  had  knowingly  and  willfully 
purchased  securities  tainted  with  fraud.  The  eastern- 
ers, on  the  other  hand,  regarded  Wisconsin  as  a  com- 
munity lost  to  honor,  the  abode  of  corrupt  politicians, 
and  the  home  of  a  degraded  people. 


CHAPTER  X 

RAILROAD  CONSTRUCTION  IN  WISCONSIN 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the 
destinies  of  the  trans-Allegheny  region  were  linked 
inseparably  to  the  Mississippi  River.  Upon  its  ample 
bosom  her  farmers  sent  to  market  the  products  of 
their  toil;  upon  it  they  depended  for  their  supplies 
and  their  connection  with  the  outside  world.  To  it 
they  owed  even  their  intellectual  and  spiritual  prog- 
ress. Any  attempt  to  limit  or  restrict  its  use  met 
with  their  prompt  resentment.  Indeed,  such  promi- 
nent and  representative  westerners  as  Wilkinson, 
later  commander  in  chief  of  the  American  army, 
Sevier,  who  afterward  became  governor  and  senator 
of  Tennessee,  Robertson,  the  founder  of  Cumberland, 
and  Blount,  who  later  served  Tennessee  as  United 
States  senator,  would  rather  have  accepted  the 
sovereignty  of  a  foreign  power  than  have  permitted 
the  surrender  by  the  American  government  of  the 
free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  River.  It  is  well 
known  that  in  purchasing  Louisiana  Jefferson  was 
actuated  primarily  by  the  need  for  securing  to  the 
West  control  of  the  mouth  of  the  great  interior 
highway.^ 

In  1861  the  Confederacy  closed  this  national  outlet 
to  northern  commerce.  It  did  so  only  with  reluctance. 
It  harbored  no  resentment  against  the  West;  its 
quarrel  was  with  New  England.    Indeed,  one  of  the 

1  F.  J.  Turner,  "The  Mississippi  Valley  in  American  History,"  in  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  Historical  Association,  Proceedings,  1909-10,  159-84. 

[271] 


272  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

first  measures  of  the  Confederate  Congress  before  the 
outbreak  of  hostilities  was  to  promise  to  the  upper 
valley  freedom  of  navigation  of  the  Mississippi, 
Some  well-informed  southerners  actually  entertained 
the  hope  that  the  Northwest  would  ultimately  join 
hands  with  the  power  that  controlled  the  mouth  of 
the  great  south-flowing  river.  It  was  only  when 
hostilities  had  formally  begun  that  the  Confederacy 
enforced  the  blockade  at  Cairo. 

What  was  the  reaction  of  the  Northwest  to  this 
hostile  blow?  Was  its  commercial  life  prostrated? 
Did  it  consider  following  the  South  into  secession? 
Its  proud  record  on  the  battle-field  and  in  the  work- 
shop during  four  years  of  bloody  war  is  sufficient 
answer.  The  embargo,  it  is  true,  seriously  embarras- 
sed for  a  short  time  the  river  region  between  Keokuk 
and  Cairo. ^  In  all  the  region  west  of  Lake  Michigan, 
however,  it  did  not  even  create  a  ripple.  The  press 
of  Wisconsin  barely  noticed  the  new  order  of  events, 
and  the  vigorous  Governor  Randall  referred  to  it 
only  in  a  few  brief  sentences  in  his  first  war  message 
to  the  legislature. 2 

This  strange  indifference  of  Wisconsin,  Minnesota, 
northern  Iowa,  and  northern  Illinois  to  the  blockade 
of  the  Mississippi  has  but  one  explanation.  The 
great  river  had  been  superseded  by  other  routes  as 
the  carrier  of  their  commerce.    The  Erie  Canal  and 

^  Mississippi  River  towns  and  Ohio  River  towns  lying  in  the  border 
region  between  Union  and  Confederate  territory,  particularly  Cincinnati 
and  St.  Louis,  were  severely  affected  by  the  blockade,  for  a  large  part  of 
their  wholesale  trade  had  been  carried  on  by  river  with  southern  towns. 
See  New  York  Tribune,  June  13,  1861;  Cincinnati  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
Reports,  1861-65;  St.  Louis  Union  Merchants'  Exchange,  Reports,  1861-65. 

2  Special  message  of  May  15,  1861  in  Wis.  Mess,  and  Docs.,  1862,  33. 
See  also  Governor  Salomon's  annual  message  of  1863  in  id.,  1863,  p.  iii. 


RAILROAD  CONSTRUCTION  273 

the  recently  completed  east  and  west  railroads 
transported  western  products  to  the  seaboard  more 
quickly  and  economically  than  ever  the  river  had 
done.  The  secessionists,  who  fondly  hoped  that  their 
control  of  the  southern  outlet  would  force  the  North- 
west to  follow  them  out  of  the  Union,  had  failed  to 
take  cognizance  of  the  fact  that  during  the  previous 
quarter  of  a  century  a  revolution  in  transportation 
had  occurred  as  swift  and  as  tremendous  as  any  the 
world  has  ever  seen. 

On  Jan.  24,  1863  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel  observed: 

But  when  it  is  asserted  that  the  North  West  will  go  with  the  power 
which  holds  possession  of  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  forsaking  her 
sacred  constitutional  obligations,  it  is  time  to  consider  what  is  the  actual 
relative  value  of  the  Mississippi  as  an  outlet  of  our  commerce,  as  com- 
pared with  the  natural  and  artificial  means  of  communication  eastward. 
We  will  say  nothing  now  of  the  utter  degradation  which  would  follow  the 
appendage  of  the  free  North  West  as  a  tail  to  the  Southern  Confederacy. 
We  will  not  urge  the  strong  family  ties,  which  stretch  by  millions  of  in- 
visible chords  from  the  East  to  the  West,  and  whose  sundering  would 
cause  more  lasting  woe  than  all  the  battles  of  the  present  war. 

We  wish  simply  to  show  by  cold,  undeniable,  easily  appreciated  statis- 
tical figures,  how  insignificant  is  the  value  of  the  lower  Mississippi  to  us 
of  the  West,  as  compared  with  the  communications  which  terminate  at 
the  East. 

There  is  a  large  portion  of  the  community  whose  ideas  upon  this  ques- 
tion would  have  been  just,  thirty  years  ago,  when  the  Mississippi  was 
the  only  outlet  for  western  products.  But  these  thirty  years  have  wit- 
nessed the  greatest  development  in  the  way  of  artificial  communication 
between  the  East  and  West,  that  was  ever  known  in  history. ^ 

The  Northwest,  so  the  editorial  concludes  after  a 
striking  array  of  statistics,  has  no  interests  in  com- 
mon with  the  Confederacy.  It  no  longer  faces  New 
Orleans;  it  looks  eastward,  its  outlet  is  the  Erie 
Canal,  and  its  future  lies  with  New  York. 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  24,  1863;  see  also  Oshkosh  Northwestern, 
Dec.  12,  1860  and  Feb.  1,  1861. 

18 


274  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

The  farmers  of  interior  Wisconsin,  Minnesota, 
Iowa,  and  Illinois  were  able  to  make  use  of  the  Erie 
Canal,  however,  only  because  they  possessed  other 
agents  for  hauling  their  products  to  the  shores  of 
Lake  Michigan.  The  latter  were  the  railroads  extend- 
ing westward  from  Milwaukee  and  Chicago.  To 
these  overland  carriers,  in  the  last  analysis,  Wisconsin 
and  her  sister  states  owed  their  deliverance  from  the 
domination  of  the  southern  water  route. 

The  railroads  lying  west  of  Lake  Michigan  differed 
widely  from  the  eastern  trunk  lines  in  the  character 
of  the  service  they  performed.  They  were  the  grain 
gatherers  of  the  Northwest.  At  thousands  of  minor 
agricultural  depots  they  picked  up  small  parcels 
of  wheat  and  corn  for  transportation  to  the  grain 
elevators  of  the  lake  ports.  At  the  shores  of  Lake 
Michigan  their  labors  ceased.  Thence  to  the  seaboard 
their  accumulations  were  transported  by  the  lake 
carriers  or  the  great  eastern  trunk  lines. 

By  a  coincidence  that  seems  almost  providential 
Wisconsin's  important  railroads,  connecting  the  Lake 
and  the  Mississippi,  were  completed  just  in  time  to  be 
in  good  running  order  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War.  Her  two  chief  westw^ard  lines,  the  Milw^aukee  & 
Mississippi  and  the  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee,  reached 
the  river  in  the  years  1857  and  1858  respectively. 
The  less  important  Racine  &  Mississippi  made  river 
connection  at  Freeport,  Illinois,  in  1859,  completing 
its  own  through  line  in  the  summer  of  1862.  When 
the  Civil  War  began,  Wisconsin  had  in  operation  some 
900  miles  of  single  track,  all  of  which  had  been  con- 
structed during  the  preceding  ten  years. ^   It  would  be 

^  Wisconsin  Railroad  Commissioner,  Report,  1889-90,  199. 


RAILROAD  CONSTRUCTION  275 

difficult  to  exaggerate  the  extent  or  the  importance 
of  the  service  which  these  carriers  rendered  during 
the  critical  years  of  the  Civil  War,  not  only  to  Wis- 
consin but  to  the  entire  settled  region  west  of  the 
Mississippi. 

In  the  history  of  the  country  periods  of  great  pros- 
perity have  usually  been  years  of  rapid  railroad 
expansion.  In  Wisconsin,  however,  the  boom  years 
from  1863  to  1868  witnessed  practically  no  progress 
of  this  kind.  Indeed,  less  miles  of  railroad  were 
constructed  in  the  seven  years  following  the  outbreak 
of  the  war  than  in  the  single  year  preceding  the  panic 
of  1857.  It  is  true  that  railroad  building  was  restricted 
in  other  parts  of  the  North  during  the  war,  due  no 
doubt  to  the  superior  attractiveness  of  industrial  and 
governmental  investments  and  the  high  cost  of  labor 
and  material.^  In  Wisconsin,  however,  the  falling 
off  in  construction  was  unusual  and  requires  further 
explanation. 

The  deterrents  to  railroad  construction  in  the  State 
were  local  as  well  as  foreign.  The  northern  half  of 
Wisconsin  was  still  a  forest  wilderness,  employing 
waterways  only  for  the  transportation  to  market 
of  lumber,  its  single  product.  This  region  did  not 
even  hold  forth  a  promise  of  ever  being  able  to  sustain 
afsufficient  agricultural  population  to  make  railroad 
investments  pay.  The  southern  half  of  Wisconsin 
was  struggUng  with  an  acute  problem  of  railroad 
indebtedness  and  as  a  result  of  its  bitter  experiences 
had  become  suspicious  of  all  railroad  enterprises. 

On  the  other  hand,  Wisconsin's  western  neighbors, 

1  See  Henry  V.  Poor,  Manual  of  Railroads  of  the  United  States,  1871-72 
(New  York,  1871),  p.  xxiv. 


276  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Minnesota  and  Iowa,  held  out  the  most  alluring 
attractions  to  railroad  promoters.  They  contained 
a  smaller  proportion  of  railroads  than  the  Badger  State, 
and  were  developing  with  far  greater  rapidity.  They 
had  several  magnificent  railroad  land  grants  within  their 
gift  which  they  were  eager  to  bestow  upon  any  respon- 
sible taker.  Their  valuable  wheat  trade  was  a  final 
powerful  stimulus,  the  object  of  keen  competition  be- 
tween the  railroads  of  Chicago  and  Milwaukee.^ 

Especially  to  the  ow^ners  of  Wisconsin  railroad 
lines  did  extensions  into  these  new  regions  appear 
essential.  Southern  Wisconsin  was  becoming  in- 
creasingly subject  to  crop  shortages,  owing  to  the 
exhaustion  of  her  soil.  The  railroads  serving  this 
part  of  Wisconsin  repeatedly  found  themselves  with- 
out adequate  traffic.  Necessity  itself  forced  them 
to  seek  other  sources  of  freight  in  the  fresh  and  fertile 
fields  beyond  the  Mississippi.  It  was  for  this  reason 
that,  during  the  years  of  the  war,  the  owners  of  the 
Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railway  Company  took  a 
prominent  part  in  building  the  Minnesota  Central 
Railroad,  and  after  the  return  of  peace  spread  their 
line  rapidly  over  northern  Iowa.  For  the  same  reason 
the  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  Company  aided 
in  constructing,  and  eventually  took  over,  the  Mc- 
Gregor &  Western  Railroad.  A  combination  of 
Chicago  and  Milwaukee  railroad  promoters  was 
heavily  interested  in  building  the  Winona  &  St. 
Peter  through  southern  Minnesota,  and  the  Chicago 
&  Northwestern  extension  across  the  Michigan  penin- 
sula.  In  1863  Minnesota  had  only  31  miles  of  railroad 

*  See  Milwaukee  &  St.   Paul  Railway   Company,  Reports,   1860-70; 
Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  Railway  Company,  Reports,  1861-66. 


RAILROAD  CONSTRUCTION  277 

as  compared  with  957  in  Wisconsin.  Nine  years  later 
she  had  approximately  1,900  miles  and  had  almost 
overtaken  her  neighbor. ^  It  was  in  these  foreign 
ventures  that  Wisconsin  railroad  capital  found  its 
outlet  during  the  years  1863  to  1868. 

Although  railroad  construction  in  Wisconsin  was 
thus  practically  at  a  standstill  there  was  no  cessation 
of  agitation  for  new  lines.  No  village  or  hamlet  in 
the  State  but  had  some  ambitious  railroad  project 
to  urge.  Local  papers  and  politicians  who  had  an 
eye  to  popular  favor  saw  to  it  that  such  an  issue 
never  slumbered  long.  Milwaukee  was  appealed  to 
for  railroad  connections  by  every  locality  within 
striking  distance.  The  trade  that  would  follow,  she 
was  assured,  would  within  a  few  years  repay  all  her 
outlay.  When  she  failed  to  respond  she  was  roundly 
abused  for  lack  of  enterprise  and  warned  that  her 
wide-awake  rival  to  the  south  would  soon  seize  the 
opportunity  she  was  neglecting.  Although  in  the 
seven  years  following  the  outbreak  of  the  war  only 
130  miles  of  railroad  were  constructed  in  the  State, 
thirty-three  new  railroad  companies  were  incor- 
porated during  this  period,  and  these  represented  only 
the  select  few  that  were  mature  enough  to  secure 
ofTicial  recognition. 2 

In  1868  railroad  building  in  Wisconsin  revived,  and 
thereafter  its  progress  was  rapid.  Within  six  years 
the  mileage  of  the  State  had  more  than  doubled. 
In  January,  1868  Wisconsin  contained  but  1,030 
miles  of  railroad,  nearly  all  of  which  lay  within  the 
southern  third  of  its  area.     By  the  end  of  1873  the 

1  St.  Paul  Board  of  Trade,  Report,  1873,  34. 

2  See  Wis.  Private  Laws  and  Wis.  Gen.  Laws  for  the  years  1861  to  1868. 


278  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

State  contained  2,379  miles,  and  northern  Wisconsin 
was  coming  into  its  own.^  Into  that  region  three  land- 
grant  railroads  were  being  projected,  the  Wisconsin 
Central,  the  West  Wisconsin,  and  the  extension  of 
the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  from  Green  Bay  to 
Marinette.  Three  other  lines  of  notable  importance, 
the  Green  Bay  &  Lake  Pepin,  the  Wisconsin  Valley,  and 
the  Milwaukee  &  Northern,  were  at  the  same  time  un- 
der way.  This  was  as  distinctly  the  period  of  northern 
railroad  development,  as  the  first  period  of  construction 
from  1850  to  1860  had  been  distinctly  southern. 

The  first  railroads  built  in  the  United  States  were 
designed,  like  the  canals  which  they  superseded,  to 
span  the  land  lying  between  navigable  watercourses. 
It  was  not  expected  that  they  would  compete  with 
water  routes,  but  merely  serve  as  feeders  to  them. 
The  railroads  of  Wisconsin  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Civil  War  admirably  illustrate  this  general  tendency. 
Wisconsin  is  a  relatively  narrow  strip  of  land  lying 
between  two  great  water  systems,  the  Mississippi  on 
the  west  and  Lake  Michigan  on  the  east.  Her  first 
railroads  were  constructed  primarily  with  a  view  to 
uniting  these  and  serving  to  carry  freight  between 
them.  Incidentally,  for  this  reason  the  general  di- 
rection of  her  lines  was  east  and  west. 

Railroad  connection  between  river  and  lake  had 
been  demanded  by  the  lead  miners  of  southwestern 
Wisconsin  as  early  as  the  forties.  Lead  was  thus  the 
first  of  the  economic  products  of  the  State  actively 
to  raise  its  voice  for  overland  transportation. ^     By 

1  Wisconsin  Blue  Book,  1911,  660. 

2  See  O.  G.  Libby  "Significance  of  the  Lead  and  Shot  Trade  in  Early 
Wisconsin  History,"  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  XIII,  293-334. 


RAILROAD  CONSTRUCTION  279 

the  middle  of  the  fifties  the  mineral  interest  of  west- 
ern Wisconsin  was  decadent.  However,  a  new  and 
more  potent  force  for  railroad  stimulation  had  already 
taken  its  place.  This  was  the  spring  wheat  of  the 
Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and  Minnesota  prairies.  Wheat 
was  the  power  that  successfully  united  the  Mississippi 
River  and  Lake  Michigan. 

At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  two  new  economic 
forces,  lumber  and  iron,  became  prominent  in  north- 
ern Wisconsin  and  upper  Michigan.  Both  clamored 
for  railroad  connection  with  the  outside  world.  The 
lumbermen  and  the  iron  miners  required  railroads  not 
so  much  for  the  shipment  of  their  products  to  market 
as  for  obtaining  their  supplies.  Their  demands  were 
reenforced,  moreover,  by  those  of  the  wheat  growers 
of  the  newly  settled  northwestern  counties  of  Wis- 
consin that  were  pressing  to  secure  direct  access  to  the 
lake-shore  ports.  It  is  doubtful  whether,  even  com- 
bined, these  forces  would  have  proved  sufficient  to  at- 
tract railroad  capital.  It  required  the  added  stimulus 
of  several  enormous  land  grants  from  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment to  accomplish  this  end,  and  even  with  their  aid 
construction  lagged  until  near  the  close  of  the  decade. 

Congress  was  exceedingly  generous  to  Wisconsin 
in  the  quantity  of  land  which  it  bestowed  upon  her 
for  the  encouragement  of  her  railroad  projects.  In 
two  magnificent  grants,  that  of  June  3,  1856  and 
that  of  May  5,  1864,  it  gave  her  for  this  purpose  more 
than  3,750,000  acres,  constituting  over  one-tenth 
the  total  land  area  of  the  State. ^      None  can  justly 

^Wisconsin  Railroad  Commissioner,  Report,  1874,  pt.  1,  227-43;  H.  0. 
Winkler,  A  Histori/  of  the  Slate  Lands  of  Wisconsin  (Ms.  thesis,  1912,  in 
the  University  of  Wisconsin  Library). 


280  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

doubt  the  benevolence  that  prompted  these  gifts. 
The  question  may,  however,  properly  be  raised 
whether  they  were  wisely  given  and  whether  they 
accomplished  the  purposes  for  which  they  were  in- 
tended. 

No  doubt  land  grants  hastened  by  several  years 
the  construction  of  a  few  desirable  Wisconsin  lines. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  tardiness  with  which  most 
of  the  beneficiaries  of  such  subsidies  fulfilled  the 
obligations  imposed  upon  them  defeated  the  object 
for  which  they  were  given.  Corporations,  at  first 
eager  to  secure  grants,  apparently  lost  all  interest  in 
them  as  soon  as  they  were  won.  Usually  they  failed 
either  partially  or  wholly  to  take  the  steps  necessary 
to  earn  unconditional  title.  In  a  number  of  instances 
unsubsidized  corporations  actually  penetrated  the 
land-grant  regions  as  soon  as  did  the  recipients  of 
public  bounty.  From  the  beginning  to  the  end  the 
story  of  Wisconsin  railroad  land  grants  is  a  dreary 
recital  of  time  extensions,  forfeitures,  divisions,  and 
regrants.  The  energy  and  patience  of  successive 
legislatures  and,  what  was  even  more  deplorable,  the 
honor  of  at  least  one  of  them  were  dissipated  in  the 
process. 

The  first  grant  bestowed  upon  the  State  provided 
for  one  northeastern  and  one  northwestern  railroad. 
This  was  disposed  of  by  the  Wisconsin  legislature 
on  Oct.  11,  1856  after  a  long  and  exciting  contest.^ 
So  much  of  the  grant  as  applied  to  a  northeastern 
railroad  was  conferred  upon  the  Wisconsin  &  Lake 
Superior  Railroad;  so  much  as  applied  to  a  north- 
western railroad  was  conferred  upon  the  La  Crosse 

1  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1856,  chaps.  122  and  137. 


RAILROAD  CONSTRUCTION  281 

&  Milwaukee.  The  former  was  but  the  agent  of  an 
association  that  later  developed  into  the  Chicago  & 
Northwestern,  and  this  corporation,  having  com- 
pHed  with  its  obUgations  by  constructing  a  road  from 
Fond  du  Lac  to  Marinette,  ultimately  received  patent 
from  the  Federal  government  to  546,446  acres  of 
its  grant.^ 

The  northwestern  portion  of  the  gift  contemplated 
a  line  extending  from  Madison  or  Columbus  by  way 
of  Portage  to  St.  Croix  River  or  Lake,  and  thence 
to  the  western  end  of  Lake  Superior,  with  a  branch 
jutting  off  to  Bayfield.     It  was  expected  that  this 
road  would  connect  at  Lake  Superior  with  the  pro- 
jected Northern  Pacific,  the  branch  line  to  Bayfield 
being   the   private   speculation    of    a    senator    from 
Minnesota.     In  1858  a  legislative  investigation  into 
the  circumstances  surrounding  the  bestowal  of  this 
grant  revealed  the  astounding  and  humiUating  fact 
that  the  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  Company  had  se- 
cured it  only  after  bribing  the  governor  and  prac- 
tically the  entire  legislature  of  the  State.    The  guilty 
corporation   had   distributed   $355,000   of  its  bonds 
among  assemblymen,  $175,000  among  senators,  $50,- 
000    to    the    governor,    $16,000    among    clerks,    and 
$246,000  among  persons  in  and  about  the  capitol.^ 
Wisconsin's  shame  was  cried  from  one  end  of  the 
land  to  the  other,  while  its  indignant  citizens  looked 
on   in   helpless   rage.      Fortunately   the   La    Crosse 
Company   did    not  long   enjoy   its   ill-gotten   gains. 
Badly  managed  as  well  as  corrupt,  it  neglected  after 
securing  the  grant   even    to  fulfil  the  requirements 

1  U.  S.  Land  Office,  Report,  1910,  23. 

2  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1858,  appendix;  id.,  1859,  appendix. 


282  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

imposed  by  it.  When,  therefore,  its  board  of  directors 
in  1858  requested  the  newly  elected  Governor  Randall 
to  certify  to  the  completion  of  twenty  miles  of  its 
road,  the  latter  not  only  refused  such  a  certificate 
but  blocked  in  the  general  land  office  at  Washington 
the  patenting  of  230,400  acres  for  which  Governor 
Bashford  had  previously  certified.^ 

The  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  Railroad  and  its 
successor,  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul,  repeatedly 
appealed  to  Governor  Randall  and  his  successors 
during  the  Civil  War  for  more  generous  considera- 
tion, protesting  against  the  harshness  of  their  punish- 
ment. Popular  sentiment,  however,  was  too  strong 
to  permit  any  concession,  and  in  1868  the  Milwaukee 
&  St.  Paul,  despairing  of  success,  agreed  to  an  act  of 
Congress  by  which  all  of  that  portion  of  the  lands,  to 
which  it  would  have  been  entitled  for  constructing 
sixty-one  miles  of  road  from  Portage  to  Tomah,  was 
conferred  upon  the  Wisconsin  Railroad  Farm  Mort- 
gage Land  Company.  To  this  corporation  163,159 
acres  of  land  were  eventually  patented  and  sold  for 
the  benefit  of  Wisconsin's  railroad  farm  mortgagors. ^ 

The  remainder  of  the  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  grant 
was  parcelled  out  by  the  legislature  of  Wisconsin 
during  the  Civil  War  to  three  separate  corporations. 
So  much  of  it  as  applied  to  a  road  from  Madison  to 
Portage  was  in  1861  conferred  upon  the  Sugar  River 
Valley  Railroad,  which  neglected,  however,  to  comply 
with  its  requirements  and  eventually  failed,  in  spite 
of  long  litigation,  to  secure  title  to  any  lands.     In 

» Id.,  1860,  769-75;  A.  W.  Randall,  "Annual  Message"  for  1859,  in  Wis. 
Mess,  and  Docs.,  1859,  16-18. 

2  U.  S.  Land  Office,  Report,  1910,  23. 


RAILROAD  CONSTRUCTION  283 

1863  that  portion  which  applied  to  a  line  from  Tomah 
to  Lake  St.  Croix  was  conferred  upon  the  newly 
organized  Tomah  &  Lake  St.  Croix  Railroad,  and 
was  ultimately  earned,  the  Federal  government  having 
in  1864  almost  doubled  its  value. ^  That  portion  which 
applied  to  a  road  from  St.  Croix  River  or  Lake  to  the 
western  end  of  Lake  Superior,  with  a  branch  to  Bay- 
field, had  a  history  which  in  itself  illustrates  the  en- 
tire trend  of  Wisconsin  land-grant  transactions. 

In  1856  it  was  secretly  transferred  by  the  La  Crosse 
&  Milwaukee  Company  to  the  St.  Croix  &  Lake 
Superior  Company  in  return  for  the  support  which 
the  latter  had  given  it  a  few  months  before  in  in- 
fluencing the  legislative  decision.  In  the  following 
year  the  bargain  received  the  formal  sanction  of  the 
Wisconsin  legislature.  In  1864  Congress  enriched  the 
gift  by  raising  from  six  to  ten  miles  the  radius  from 
which  alternate  sections  of  land  could  be  chosen.  In 
spite  of  all  this  generosity,  however,  the  St.  Croix 
Company  made  little  effort  to  earn  title,  and  in  1869, 
its  time  limit  having  expired,  the  grant  reverted  to 
the  Federal  government.  In  1872  Congress  was  pre- 
vailed upon  to  renew  the  gift,  and  it  was  then  con- 
ferred upon  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railroad,  only 
to  be  rejected  by  the  company  because  of  objections 
to  some  of  the  conditions  it  imposed.  Ultimately  it 
was  earned  by  the  North  Wisconsin  Railroad  and  its 
successor,  the  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  &.  Omaha. 
It  proved  to  be  the  richest  of  any  of  the  railroad  land 
grants  of  Wisconsin,  netting  to  its  beneficiaries  a  vast 
domain  of  1,288,209  acres  of  valuable  timberland.^ 

'  Ibid. 
2  Ibid. 


284  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

While  successive  Wisconsin  legislatures  were  thus 
wearily  engaged  in  donating,  dividing,  repealing, 
and  reconferring  portions  of  the  first  great  railroad 
grant  of  1856,  Congress  was  preparing  to  bestow  upon 
the  State  another  grant.  The  new  donation  was  but 
one  of  the  many  lavish  gifts  of  the  Federal  govern- 
ment to  loyal  states  during  the  critical  years  1862  to 
1864,  when  more  public  lands  were  given  away  for 
the  encouragement  of  railroad  enterprises  than  had 
ever  been  given  before  or  have  ever  been  given  since. 
The  grant  comprised  "every  alternate  odd  numbered 
section  for  ten  miles  on  each  side  of  a  railroad  located 
from  Portage  City,  Berlin,  Doty's  Island,  or  Fond 
du  Lac  in  a  northwestern  direction  to  Bayfield,  and 
thence  to  Superior  on  Lake  Superior."^ 

The  Wisconsin  legislature  of  1865  was  confronted 
with  the  difficult  task  of  disposing  of  this  new  be- 
quest. All  the  cities  named  in  the  congressional  act 
were  eager  to  be  made  the  terminal  point  of  the  rail- 
road which  it  contemplated,  and  to  their  contentions 
were  added  the  rivalries  of  Milwaukee  and  Chicago. 
Milwaukee  interests  favored  Fond  du  Lac,  expecting 
in  the  event  of  success  to  build  a  line  northward 
connecting  with  the  proposed  railroad  at  the  foot  of 
Lake  Winnebago.  Portage  was  championed  by  Chi- 
cago which  looked  forward  to  a  union  with  the  pro- 
posed road  by  way  of  a  line  through  Genoa  and 
Madison. 2  The  legislature  seemed  to  favor  Portage 
but  the  delegation  from  that  city  was  divided,  a  part 
insisting  that  in  disposing  of  the  lands  some  provision 

1  U.  S.  statutes,  38  Cong.,  1  sess.,  chap.  80. 

2  See  Wis.  State  Jour.;  Portage  Register;  Milwaukee  Sentinel;  and  Mil- 
waukee Daily  News,  during  legislative  sessions  of  1865  and  1866. 


RAILROAD  CONSTRUCTION  285 

be  made  for  the  relief  of  Wisconsin's  railroad  farm 
mortgagors.  The  Milwaukee  forces  shrewdly  secured 
a  postponement  of  the  entire  question  by  throwing 
their  strength  to  this  farm-mortgage  element. 

In  1866  a  compromise  was  effected  by  incorporat- 
ing two  railroad  companies,  the  first  of  which  was 
authorized  to  build  a  road  from  Doty's  Island  to 
Stevens  Point,  the  second  from  Portage  to  Stevens 
Point,  and  the  two  to  construct  and  operate  jointly 
the  remainder  of  the  line  from  Stevens  Point  to  Lake 
Superior.^  The  bill  anticipated  a  consolidation  of 
the  two  railroads,  which  was,  in  fact,  effected  three 
years  later.  The  resulting  Portage,  Winnebago  & 
Lake  Superior  Railroad,  the  name  of  which  was  soon 
changed  to  the  Wisconsin  Central  Railroad,  eventu- 
ally constructed  the  necessary  track  and  secured 
patent  in  northern  Wisconsin  to  837,227  acres  of 
valuable  timberland.^ 

In  southern  Wisconsin  there  was  some  scattering 
criticism  of  the  land-grant  policy  as  early  even  as 
the  sixties.  Northern  Wisconsin,  for  the  benefit  of 
which  the  aid  was  chiefly  given,  was,  however,  gen- 
erally favorable  to  it.^  It  roundly  denounced  the 
antagonism  in  southern  Wisconsin,  comparing  such  an 
attitude  to  that  of  the  politician  who  would  "kick 
away  the  ladder  by  which  he  has  climbed  up  to 
prominence    and    fame."^     Its    feeling   toward    land 

1  Wis.  Private  Laws,  1866,  chaps.  314  and  362. 

2  U.  S.  Land  Office,  Report,  1910,  23. 

3  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1867,  326;  Wis.  Sen.  Jour.,  1867,  244;  Hartford 
Home  League,  Nov.  10,  1860.  Compare  J.  G.  Thompson,  "Wheat  Grow- 
ing in  Wisconsin,"  University  of  Wisconsin,  Bulletin,  No.  292  (Madison, 
1909),  144-45. 

■•  There  were  some  exceptions  to  this  rule.  In  northwestern  Wisconsin 
into  which  settlement  was  rushing  with  great  rapidity  during  the  sixties. 


286  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

grants    was    strikingly    expressed    in    the    Chippewa 
Herald  oi  Nov.  12,  1870: 

What  is  the  public  domain  good  for  while  it  remains  public  domain? 
We  want  cattle — not  buffalo.  We  want  sheep — not  antelopes.  We  want 
emigrants — not  Indians.  Railroads  will  not  be  built  through  a  howling 
wilderness  without  aid.  Government  loses  nothing  by  the  aid  rendered. 
It  is  true,  settlers  pay  more  for  land,  but  is  there  not  a  large  amount  of 
public  domain  for  them  to  select  from?  *  *  *  I  fear  [referring  to  opposi- 
tion to  land  grants]  that  the  same  spirit  is  alive  that  opposed  free  schools, 
free  men,  and  free  homesteads. 

Northern  Wisconsin  on  the  whole  considered  no 
sacrifice  too  great  that  would  bring  new  railroads.  It 
was  willing  to  go  to  the  same  great  lengths  in  its  zeal 
for  transportation  facilities  that  had  marked  southern 
Wisconsin  during  the  previous  period  of  railroad 
construction.  Towns,  cities,  and  villages  all  along 
the  lines  of  projected  railroads  were  ready  to  plunge 
themselves  into  debt  in  order  to  encourage  construc- 
tion, although  scores  of  towns,  villages,  and  cities  of 
southern  Wisconsin  that  had  adopted  the  same 
course  during  the  railroad  craze  from  1850  to  1860 
were  now  either  bankrupt  or  on  the  verge  of  bank- 
ruptcy. 

It  was  a  fortunate  restriction  in  the  Wisconsin 
constitution  which  prohibited  its  legislature  from 
granting  aid  in  any  form  to  internal  improvement 
associations.  Undoubtedly  the  State  was  saved  by 
it  from  those  embarrassing  railroad  tangles  that 
marked  the  early  history  of  Minnesota.  Northern 
Wisconsin,  however,  in  its  ardor  for  overland  trans- 

the  withdrawal  of  large  sections  of  public  lands  from  entry  for  the  benefit 
of  the  "land  monopolists"  was  resented,  and  the  dissatisfaction  was  in- 
creased by  the  exemption  of  these  lands  from  taxation  and  the  long  delays 
of  the  favored  railroads  in  building  the  promised  lines.  Chippewa  Herald, 
Oct.  29,  1870. 


RAILROAD  CONSTRUCTION  287 

portation  was  eager  to  remove  this  prohibition.  In 
the  legislative  session  of  1867  a  joint  resolution  was 
introduced  calling  upon  the  proper  authorities  to 
submit  to  a  vote  of  the  people  a  constitutional 
amendment  empowering  the  State  to  donate  $100,000 
for  every  twenty  continuous  miles  of  railroad  there- 
after constructed  within  Wisconsin. ^  This  unusual 
measure  was  readily  carried,  the  Senate  voting  almost 
unanimously  in  its  favor  and  the  Assembly  accepting 
it  by  a  majority  of  fifty-six  to  thirty-three.  The 
northern  counties  voted  soUdly  for  the  resolution 
while  the  southern  counties  were  divided.  The  rail- 
road farm  mortgagors  at  first  attempted  to  amend 
the  measure  so  as  to  oblige  railroads  receiving  the 
bounty  to  discharge  their  mortgage  obligations,  but 
failing  in  this,  they  turned  solidly  to  the  opposition. ^ 

Constitutional  procedure  made  necessary  the  adop- 
tion of  the  resolution  by  the  following  legislature 
before  it  could  be  submitted  to  a  referendum.  Fortu- 
nately in  the  legislatures  of  1868  and  1869  it  was 
defeated  by  the  votes  of  southern  Wisconsin.  We 
have  here,  as  well  as  in  questions  relating  to  land 
grants,  evidence  of  an  interesting,  though  not  always 
clearly  defined,  sectional  alignment  within  the  State, 
the  frontier  northern  areas  ranging  themselves  in 
favor  of  railroads  and  the  well-settled  southern  areas 
taking  their  stand  against  them. 

Many  and  perplexing  as  were  the  evils  and  prob- 
lems that  thus  attended  the  construction  of  Wiscon- 
sin's  railroad   system,    they   were   a   hundred   times 

1  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1867,  Joint  Resolution,  No.  14. 

-  See  index  to  Wis.  Sen.  Jour.,  and  Wis.  Assem.  Jour,  for    1867  under 
Resolutions,  Joint,  No.  16S. 


288  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

offset  by  the  services  which  the  completed  carriers 
rendered.  Undoubtedly  it  was  to  overland  transpor- 
tation that  the  entire  region  west  of  Lake  Michigan 
owed  its  abounding  prosperity  during  the  critical 
years  of  the  Civil  War. 

The  railroads  themselves  shared  generously  in  this 
universal  affluence.  Thanks  to  the  blockade  of  the 
Mississippi  they  enjoyed,  uncontested,  the  rich  traffic 
of  the  upper  valley.  New  equipments,  better  road- 
beds, and  the  unification  of  scattered  lines  became 
possible  as  a  result.  They  gained  an  advantage  over 
the  river  route  that  under  ordinary  circumstances 
only  the  effort  of  years  would  have  given.  The  mer- 
chants of  the  upper-river  towns  learned  during  the 
embargo  to  depend  on  the  speed,  certainty,  and 
directness  of  overland  shipment,  and  when  the  Missis- 
sippi was  again  opened  to  commerce  it  secured  only 
a  meager  and  diminishing  fraction  of  the  trade  that 
had  once  been  entirely  its  own. 


CHAPTER  XI 
RAILROAD  CONSOLIDATION 

Concentration  was  one  of  the  striking  character- 
istics of  the  commercial  and  industrial  life  of  the 
United  States  during  the  decade  of  the  sixties.  In 
Wisconsin  this  was  particularly  true  of  transporta- 
tion agents.  At  no  other  time  in  the  history  of  the 
State  has  railroad  consolidation  proceeded  so  swiftly 
as  during  these  eventful  years.  During  this  period 
both  of  the  great  systems,  that  we  now  know  as  the 
Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  and  the  Chicago  & 
Northwestern,  rose  to  importance  in  the  transporta- 
tion world  as  a  result  of  consolidations. 

The  experience  of  the  Northwest  has  been  that 
waves  of  railroad  consolidation  follow  upon  periods 
of  great  industrial  depression.  This  is  an  entirely 
natural  sequence.  As  a  result  of  hard  times  newly 
constructed  roads  become  bankrupt  and  fall  into  the 
hands  of  their  bondholders.  The  latter,  eager  to 
realize  upon  their  property,  are  ready  to  sell  upon 
reasonable  terms  or  equally  willing  to  cut  com- 
petitive expenses  by  consolidating  with  rival  lines. 
At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  practically  all  rail- 
roads in  Wisconsin  were  entangled  in  the  crash  of 
the  panic  of  1857.  With  scarcely  any  exception  they 
were  bankrupt,  isolated,  and  fragmentary,  their  lines 
in  the  hands  of  court  receivers,  and  their  property 
for  sale  under  foreclosure  proceedings.    The  unifica- 

[289  1 


290  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

tion  of  these  struggling  elements  into  several  great 
railroad  systems  was  the  task  which  the  Civil  War 
period  inaugurated  and  partially  carried  to  completion. 
The  nucleus  about  which  the  Wisconsin  consolida- 
tion movement  centered  was  the  old  La  Crosse  & 
Milwaukee  Railroad.  This  interesting  corporation, 
a  part  of  whose  sensational  career  has  already  been 
traced,  was  in  1859  hopelessly  bankrupt.  In  1863  its 
line  was  sold  under  foreclosure  to  its  bondholders, 
who  at  once  organized  a  new  corporation,  known  as 
the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railway  Company,^  to 
operate  it.  Within  a  few  weeks  the  latter  had  reunited 
the  eastern  and  western  divisions  of  its  road,  which 
had  been  separated  during  the  period  of  receivership, 
and,  thereafter,  despite  an  almost  endless  maze  of 
litigation,  continued  to  keep  them  united  except  for 
an  interval  of  two  years.  In  a  few  months  it  had 
come  into  possession  of  three  other  bankrupt  lines, 
the  Milwaukee  &  Western,  the  Milwaukee  &  Hori- 
con,  and  the  Ripon  &  Wolf  River,  and  was  making 
overtures  to  its  chief  competitor,  the  Milwaukee  & 
Prairie  du  Chien,  either  to  pool  earnings  or  consoli- 
date. Its  president,  Alexander  Mitchell,  was  presi- 
dent of  the  recently  consolidated  Chicago  &  Mil- 
waukee   Railroad,    and    was    in    addition    actively 

1  The  organization  of  this  road  led  to  protracted  litigation  in  which 
important  legal  principles  concerning  the  foreclosure  of  railroad  properties 
and  organization  of  new  companies  were  for  the  first  time  laid  down.  See 
J.  W.  Gary,  Organization  and  History  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St. 
Paul  Railway  Company  (Milwaukee,  1893);  Wis.  Railroad  Commission, 
Report,  1874,  Official  Papers,  78-98;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Mar.  23,  1863, 
Feb.  15,  1864,  Jan.  4,  9,  and  24,  1866,  Feb.  10,  1866,  Mar.  6,  7,  and  14, 
1866,  Nov.  7,  1866,  and  Mar.  23,  1868;  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  June  6 
and  13,  1863,  and  April  4  and  5,  1865;  Portage  i?e^fs/e/-,  May  20,  June  17, 
and  July  1,  1865,  and  Jan.  5,  1866. 


ALEXANDER  MITCHELL 


RAILROAD  CONSOLIDATION  291 

interested  in  the  construction  of  new  lines  in  Minne- 
sota. At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  Milwaukee  & 
St.  Paul  was  one  of  the  three  controlUng  railway 
systems  in  Wisconsin. 

The  grand  coup  of  the  new  organization  took  place 
in  the  spring  of  1866,  being  nothing  less  than  the 
sudden  and  dramatic  absorption  of  its  chief  rival, 
the  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien.  For  a  proper 
understanding  of  this  interesting  event,  important 
not  only  because  of  its  results  but  because  of  the 
degree  to  which  it  typified  western  railroad  and  legis- 
lative methods,  it  is  necessary  to  allude  briefly  to 
the  early  history  of  the  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du 
Chien  Company. 

This  corporation,  like  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul, 
was  an  association  of  bondholders,  organized  in  1861 
to  purchase  and  operate  the  line  of  the  bankrupt 
Milwaukee  &  Mississippi  Railroad.  The  terms  under 
which  the  reorganization  was  affected  were  some- 
what pecuUar,  though  entirely  creditable  in  their 
spirit  to  the  bondholders.  Common  stock  was  to 
earn  no  dividends  and  be  entitled  to  no  voice  in  the 
election  of  directors  until  a  mortgage  of  $2,556,000 
had  been  completely  liquidated. 

From  the  beginning  the  affairs  of  the  new  Company 
were  managed  conservatively,  and  the  value  of  its 
common  stock  rose  from  12  cents  on  the  dollar  at 
the  time  of  reorganization  to  90  cents  by  the  middle 
of  1863.^  Its  securities,  it  is  true,  declined  heavily 
during  the  fall  of  1864  and  the  spring  of  1865,^  but 

1  Documents  Relating  to  the  Organization  of  the  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du 
Chien  Railway  Company  (New  York,  1861),  bound  ^ith  Milwaukee  & 
Prairie  du  Chien  Railway  Company,  Report,  1865,  16-24. 

2  HunVs  Merchants'  Magazine,  October,  1865,  297. 


292  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

this  was  due  to  causes  which  affected  adversely  all 
railroad  Unes  in  Wisconsin,  the  failure  of  the  wheat 
crop  of  1864  and  the  return  of  peace  in  1865.  By 
1866  the  company  had  received  three  offers  from  its 
rival,  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul,  to  consoUdate  lines 
or  pool  earnings.  The  first  of  these,  made  in  the 
summer  of  1863,  had  come  to  naught.^  The  second,  an 
offer  of  outright  sale  in  the  summer  of  1865  by  the 
hard-pressed  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul,  it  had  Hkewise 
been  obhged  to  forego. ^  The  third,  however,  a  pro- 
posal for  a  system  of  prorating  earnings,  suggested 
in  the  spring  of  1866,  it  had  agreed  to^  and  was  prepar- 
ing to  try  out  when  several  events  occurred  that 
necessitated  wholly  different  arrangements. 

The  first  of  these  was  the  springing  of  the  notorious 
"Prairie  Dog  Corner"  on  the  New  York  Stock 
Exchange.  "Prairie  Dog"  is  the  English  version  of 
Prairie  du  Chien,  and  the  "Prairie  Dog  Corner" 
was  a  speculation  in  the  common  stock  of  the  Mil- 
waukee &  Prairie  du  Chien  Company.  The  men 
engaged  in  this  operation,  among  whom  the  broker- 
age firm  of  Henry  Stimson  &  Company  was  the  most 
prominent,  had  for  several  months  been  making 
their  preparations.  Quietly,  they  had  bought  up, 
at  the  low  prices  prevailing,  all  of  the  29,880  shares 
of  the  Prairie  du  Chien  common  stock.  Many  of 
these  they  loaned  to  unsuspecting  neighbors,  others 
they  scattered  about  Wall  Street  subject  to  short  call. 

1  See  post,  300-304. 

2  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  Railway  Company,  Directors'  Pro- 
ceedings, June  7  and  9,  1865. 

3  Note  that  pooling  arrangements  were  at  this  time  entirely  lawful. 
See  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  Railway  Company,  Report,  1866,  7; 
also  Document  No.  2242  in  the  Milwaukee  office  of  the  Chicago  Milwau- 
kee &  St.  Paul  Railway  Company. 


RAILROAD  CONSOLIDATION  293 

On  Nov.  6,  1865  they  were  ready  to  show  their 
hand.  Borrowers  were  suddenly  notified  to  return 
their  loans,  and  the  firms  that  had  sold  short  were 
called  upon  to  deliver.  A  day  of  wild  sensation  fol- 
lowed. Brokers  unprepared  to  deliver  rushed  to  the 
exchange  to  buy,  only  to  find  that  Prairie  du  Chien 
common  stock  was  not  to  be  had  except  at  fabulous 
prices.  Stocks  which  had  sold  ten  days  before  for 
$64.50  now  commanded  $230.  According  to  the  New 
York  Times  it  was  "the  sharpest  and  beyond  all 
precedent  the  most  sudden  corner  known  to  the 
forty  years'  history  of  the  New  York  stock  exchange."^ 

It  appears  that  the  speculators  engaged  in  this 
transaction  were  unaware  of  the  peculiar  provision 
in  the  Prairie  du  Chien  charter  denying  common 
stockholders  the  right  to  vote  for  directors. ^  They 
were  now  in  the  unpleasant  predicament  of  owning  a 
majority  interest  in  a  far-off  western  railroad,  yet 
having  no  control  over  its  administration.  They  were, 
however,  resolute  men,  not  to  be  balked  in  their  pur- 
poses by  mere  legal  restrictions.  In  the  spring  of  1866 
Stimson  &  Company  engaged  an  astute  Madison 
lawyer  to  attend  the  session  of  the  Wisconsin  legis- 
lature and  secure  for  them  an  amendment  to  the 
charter  of  the  Prairie  du  Chien  Railroad  bestowing 
upon  common  stockholders  the  right  to  a  voice  in  the 
affairs  of  that  company.  Five  thousand  dollars  was 
to  be  his  reward  for  securing  such  an  enactment. 

'  For  interesting  details  concerning  this  corner  and  the  injunction  pro- 
ceedings which  grew  out  of  it,  see  the  financial  columns  of  the  New  York 
Herald  and  New  York  Times  for  Nov.  6  to  Nov.  20,  1865;  also  Hunfs  Mer- 
chants' Magazine,  December,  1865,  46;  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien 
Railway  Company,  Report,  1865,  8-9. 

2  Ibid.,  16-24. 


294  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

On  March  22  the  measure  desired  by  Stimson  & 
Company  was  introduced  with  entire  candor  in  the 
Senate.  On  the  previous  day,  however,  another  bill, 
accomplishing  by  indirection  the  same  ends,  had  been 
quietly  slipped  into  the  Assembly.  The  first  bill  was 
speedily  discovered  and  exposed  by  the  legislative 
agents  of  the  Prairie  du  Chien  Company.  Upon  their 
threat  to  flood  the  market  with  new  issues  of  com- 
mon stock,  Stimson  was  compelled  to  order  it  dropped. 
He  further  agreed  not  to  introduce  any  new  measure 
of  such  a  character  at  that  session,  though  he  said 
nothing  concerning  the  secret  bill  which  was  at  that 
very  moment  quietly  working  its  way  through  the 
Assembly.  The  vigilance  of  the  railroad  officials  was 
relaxed,  and  the  operations  of  Stimson's  attorney 
were  not  detected.  The  latter  represented  to  the 
committee  before  which  his  bill  appeared  that  it  was 
intended  to  apply  solely  to  a  corrupt  Madison 
pelroleum  mining  company,  and  since  some  forty- 
five  or  fifty  other  measures  relating  to  petroleum 
companies  were  before  the  legislature,  this  explana- 
tion was  readily  accepted.  The  close  of  the  session 
was  near  at  hand  and  in  the  usual  rush  of  legislative 
business  bills  were  passed  without  careful  scrutiny. 
On  the  last  day  of  the  session  the  fateful  "petroleum 
bill"  was  signed  by  Governor  Fairchild,  together  with 
scores  of  other  measures,  and  as  a  result  Stimson  and 
his  associates  had  come  into  control  of  the  Milwau- 
kee &  Prairie  du  Chien  Railway.^ 

^  For  details  concerning  the  passage  of  this  measure  see  Wis.  Assem. 
Jour.,  1866,  692,  864,  933,  937,  1124,  1154,  1157;  id.,  1867,  1282-1291; 
Wis.  Sen.  Jour.,  1866,  652,  929;  id.,  1867,  277-80,  336-38;  Wis.  Gen.  Laws, 
1866,  chap.  88. 


RAILROAD  CONSOLIDATION  295 

Stimson  at  once  entered  into  negotiations  with 
the  officers  of  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Company 
to  sell  out  to  them  the  holdings  which  he  possessed. 
His  olTer  was  eagerly  accepted.  At  the  end  of  April, 
1866,  just  when  the  pooling  arrangement  between  the 
two  railroads,  to  which  reference  has  been  made,  was 
to  have  gone  into  effect,  control  of  the  Prairie  du 
Chien  Railway  passed  into  the  hands  of  its  rival. 
For  Stimson  and  his  associates  the  operation  had 
been  an  extremely  profitable  one.  For  their  common 
stock,  amounting  to  some  29,200  shares,  they  re- 
ceived an  equal  number  of  first  preferred  shares  of 
the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Company  and  25  per  cent 
more  of  common.^  The  unhappy  officers  of  the  Prairie 
du  Chien  Company  fought  for  a  time  to  retain 
possession  of  their  road,  but  near  the  close  of  1867 
became  discouraged  and  sold  out  their  interests  to 
their  victorious  rivals. 

In  acquiring  possession  of  the  Prairie  du  Chien 
properties  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Company  also 
secured  control  of  the  McGregor  &  Western  Railroad. 
Thereafter  for  many  years  its  chief  interest  lay  in 
expanding  westward  as  swiftly  as  possible  over  Iowa, 
Minnesota,  Nebraska,  and  Dakota.  However,  the 
construction  of  these  feeders  did  not  so  entirely 
engross  its  energies  as  to  preclude  new  consolidations 
in  Wisconsin.  In  1868  a  lease  of  the  West  Wisconsin 
Railway,  then  under  construction  from  Tomah  to 
Hudson,  was  obtained.  In  the  winter  of  1868-69 
Alexander  Mitchell,  while  on  a  visit  to  his  native 

1  Gary,  The  History  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railway  Com- 
pany, 81 ;  see  also  statement  of  Judge  Jason  Downer  in  Milwaukee  Sentinel, 
Mar.  4,  1867. 


296  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

home  in  Scotland,  purchased  from  the  City  Bank  of 
Glasgow  a  controlling  interest  in  the  Racine  &  Missis- 
sippi. By  the  end  of  1869  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul 
Company  controlled  every  Wisconsin  through  route 
leading  from  the  lake  shore  to  the  Mississippi  River. 
Surprising  as  was  this  swift  integration  of  the 
Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  system,  it  was  but  a  counter- 
part to  a  similar  development  of  the  Chicago  & 
Northwestern.  The  latter  corporation,  like  the 
Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul,  arose  out  of  the  panic  of  1857.^ 
It,  too,  represented  an  association  of  bondholders  and 
creditors,  in  this  instance  of  the  bankrupt  Chicago, 
St.  Paul  &  Fond  du  Lac  Railroad  Company.  Being 
at  that  time  quite  as  much  a  Wisconsin  as  an  Illinois 
organization,  it  was  incorporated  under  the  laws  of 
both  Wisconsin  and  Illinois  in  1859.^  During  the 
early  sixties  it  rapidly  extended  its  line  by  way  of 
the  valleys  of  the  Rock  and  Fox  rivers  to  Green  Bay. 
Its  road  differed  in  two  notable  respects  from  most 
Wisconsin  railroads:  First,  it  ran  north  and  south; 
second,  it  served  a  variety  of  interests  instead  of  a 
single  one.  From  the  well-settled  Rock  River  Valley 
it  drew  wheat  and  agricultural  products;  as  it  pro- 
ceeded northward  it  drained  the  pineries  of  the 
Wolf  River  and  Green  Bay,  serving  at  the  same 
time  the  aspiring  young  manufacturing  communities 
of  the  lower  Fox;  and  when  in  1864  the  "Extension" 
across  the  Michigan  peninsula  was  built  it  tapped 
the  rich  iron  mines  of  the  Lake  Superior  region. 

1  For  the  early  history  of  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  Railway  see  W. 
H.  Stennett,  Historic  of  the  Chicago  and  North  Western  Railway  System 
(Chicago,  1910);  Milwaukee  Semi-Weekly  Wisconsin,  Sept.  8,  1869; 
letter  of  Pres.  W.  B.  Ogden  in  Chicago  Tribune,  June  5,  1868. 

2  Chicago  <Sr  Northwestern  Railway  Company,  Report,  1865,  3-45. 


RAILROAD  CONSOLIDATION  297 

The  Chicago  &  Northwestern  Company  began  its 
remarkable  career  of  consolidation  in  January,  1864, 
when  it  acquired  a  controlling  interest  in  the  bank- 
rupt Kenosha,  Rockford  <k  Rock  Island  Railroad,  a 
line  recently  completed  from  Kenosha  to  Rockford. ^ 
In  the  spring  of  the  same  year  it  undertook  to  ehm- 
inate  the  severe  and  injurious  competition  which  had 
for  years  been  carried  on  with  the  Galena  &  Chicago 
Union  Railroad,  and  its  efforts  were  entirely  success- 
ful. On  June  3,  1864  to  the  surprise  of  the  whole  rail- 
road world  it  absorbed  its  rival,  though  it  was  ap- 
parently the  weaker  and  less  prosperous  road  of  the 
two.  A  suit  to  dissolve  the  combination  was  insti- 
tuted by  stockholders  of  the  Galena  &  Chicago  Union, 
who  alleged  that  both  this  and  the  Kenosha  consoli- 
dation had  been  accompHshed  by  the  machinations 
of  a  corrupt  inner  ring  of  the  Chicago  &  Northwest- 
ern. However,  the  action  had  no  other  effect  than  to 
depress  the  value  of  Northwestern  stock.^ 

In  acquiring  the  Galena  &  Chicago  Union,  the 
Chicago  &  Northwestern  also  secured  control  of  the 
Beloit  &  Madison  Railroad.  In  the  spring  of  1865 
it  quietly  purchased  a  majority  of  the  stock  of  the 
Chicago  &  Milwaukee  Railroad,  thereby  heading  off 
a  similar  move  on  the  part  of  the  Milwaukee  &  St. 
Paul  Company. 3    By  1868  the  Chicago  &  Northwest- 

1  Ibid.,  24-26. 

2  For  information  concerning  this  consolidation  and  the  legal  proceed- 
ings growing  out  of  it  see  ibid.,  3-45;  id.,  1866,  19-26;  Elliott  Anthony, 
Brief  before  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  for  northern  Illinois  in  the 
case  of  Wadsworth  et  al.  vs.,  C.  6:  N.  W.  R.  R.  Co.,  Wm.  B.  Ogden  et  al. 
(Chicago,  1865) ;  James  Parton,  Manual  for  the  Instruction  of  "Rings"  Rail- 
road and  Political  (New  York,  1866). 

■>  Chicago  &  North  Western  Railway  Company,  Report,  1865,  36-37; 
Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Feb.  14,  1865;  Milwaukee  Daily  News,  Feb.  12,  1865; 


298  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

ern  and  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  owned  or  controlled 
every  important  railroad  line  in  Wisconsin. 

It  was  not  long  before  these  two  companies  moved 
to  secure  harmonious  relations  with  each  other.  At 
the  annual  stockholders'  meeting  of  the  Chicago  & 
Northwestern  in  the  spring  of  1868  four  of  the  di- 
rectors and  influential  owners  of  the  Milwaukee  & 
St.  Paul,  one  among  them  being  President  Mitchell, 
were  chosen  to  its  board. ^  A  few  days  later  the  stock- 
holders of  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Company,  not 
to  be  outdone,  elected  President  Keep  of  the  North- 
western road  to  membership  on  their  board.  The 
keen  rivalry  that  had  hitherto  marked  the  relations 
of  these  two  corporations  was  now  for  a  period  of 
two  years  at  an  end,  and  the  Northwestern  gave  up 
a  long  contemplated  plan  of  constructing  a  com- 
petitive line  from  Madison  northwest  to  the  Missis- 
sippi River. 

In  the  summer  of  1869  the  amity  between  the  two 
corporations  became  still  closer  when  the  president 
of  the  Northwestern  died  and  the  president  of  the 
Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  was  chosen  to  fill  his  place. ^ 
Alexander  Mitchell  was  in  1869  and  1870  the  rail- 
road king  of  the  world,  representing,  with  one  possi- 
ble exception,  the  greatest  concentration  of  railroad 
mileage  in  existence.     Some  2,300  miles  of  railroad 

J.  D.  Butler,  "Alexander  Mitchell,  The  Financier,"  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls., 
XI,  447. 

1  Chicago  Tribune,  June  2  and  5,  1868;  Milwaukee  News,  June  5  and  6, 
1868;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  June  6  and  11,  1868;  Milwaukee  Semi-Weekly 
Wis.,  June  10,  1868. 

2  For  comments  upon  this  election  see  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Sept.  2,  13, 
and  22,  1869;  Milwaukee  News,  Sept.  3,  1869;  Green  Bay  Gazette,  Sept. 
9,  1869;  New  York  Times,  Sept.  2,  1869;  New  York  Herald,  Sept.  3, 
1869. 


RAILROAD  CONSOLIDATION  299 

lines  reaching  northward  to  Lake  Superior  and 
westward  to  Omaha  were  under  his  supervision.  He 
and  his  associates  controlled  by  ownership,  lease, 
or  otherwise  every  desirable  railroad  property  in 
Wisconsin,  amounting  in  all  to  some  1,045  miles. 
Only  two  insignificant  companies,  owning  together 
but  eighty-six  miles  of  track,  were  at  that  time 
operating  independently  within  the  Badger  State. 
The  Chicago  Post  commenting  facetiously  upon  this 
situation  observed: 

History  repeats  itself.  The  tears  of  Alexander  the  Great,  because  he 
had  no  more  worlds  to  conquer,  are  familiar  to  every  school-boy,  and  here 
we  have  another  Alexander,  surnamed  Mitchell,  who  starting  out  with  the 
Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  railroad,  first  gobbled  the  old  Milwaukee  and 
La  Crosse,  then  the  Prairie  du  Chien,  then  half  a  dozen  small  railroads  in 
Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and  Minnesota,  then  the  Western  Union,  and  now,  eheu 
iam  satis!  the  Northwestern,  with  all  its  branches,  spurs,  divisions,  and 
ramifications!  As  there  are  still  other  lines  to  gobble,  however,  we  sup- 
pose the  weeping  will  not  commence  until  such  little  side-tracks  as  the 
Union  Pacific,  New  York  Central,  etc.,  are  added  to  the  inventory. ^ 

In  many  ways  this  wave  of  consolidation  served  a 
useful  and  beneficial  purpose.  It  gathered  together 
the  numerous  local,  fragmentary,  and  isolated  lines 
left  bankrupt  by  the  panic  of  1857  and  welded  them 
into  several  comprehensive  and  powerful  through- 
route  systems,  affording  conveniences  of  transporta- 
tion and  economies  of  management  that  had  hitherto 
been  unknown.  The  railroads  of  Wisconsin,  formerly 
bound  by  local  jealousies  and  limited  by  State  borders, 
were  now  able  to  leap  even  the  natural  barrier  of 
the  Mississippi  River^  and  fling  their  lines  hundreds 
of  miles  over  the  rich  and  flourishing  prairies  of  the 

1  Reprinted  in  Milwaukee  News,  Sept.  4,  1869. 

=^  The  first  through  line  from  Milwaukee  to  St.  Paul  was  completed  in 
1867. 


300  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

far  West.  They  were  developing  speedily  into  con- 
tinental systems,  and  their  plans  for  securing  con- 
nection with  the  distant  Pacific  Ocean  were  no  longer 
merely  idle  dreams. 

Much  of  the  consolidation,  on  the  other  hand, 
particularly  such  as  involved  parallel  lines,  was 
calculated  solely  to  eliminate  desirable  competition. 
Where  this  was  the  case,  the  companies  kept  their 
operations  secret,  and  the  public  learned  of  them 
only  when  resistance  was  too  late.  Unfortunately  the 
people  of  Wisconsin  were  only  partially  aroused  to 
the  danger  of  such  concentrations.  As  a  matter  of 
abstract  theory  they  were  opposed  to  all  consolida- 
tions, but  when  brought  face  to  face  with  concrete 
instances  they  were  either  indifferent,  actually  fav- 
orable, or  vacillating  in  their  policy. 

A  notable  exception  to  this  uncertainty  occurred 
in  the  summer  of  1863.  It  was  a  time  when  more 
consolidation  movements  were  on  foot  in  Wisconsin 
than  at  any  subsequent  time  in  the  entire  period.  The 
Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Company  was  just  emerging 
out  of  a  court  receivership  and  was  about  to  take 
over  three  other  lines  elsewhere  mentioned.  The 
Milwaukee  &  Chicago  Railroad  and  the  Chicago  & 
Milwaukee  Railroad  were  undergoing  consolidation 
with  Mitchell  as  president.  The  Chicago  &  North- 
western was  in  the  process  of  taking  over  the  Kenosha, 
Rockford  &  Rock  Island  and  was  well  known  to  have 
designs  on  the  Racine  &  Mississippi.  Particularly 
disquieting  was  the  report  published  in  New  York 
and  Wisconsin  newspapers  that  the  newly  born 
Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Company  was  negotiating  with 
the  Milwaukee  Sc  Prairie  du  Chien  Company  either 


RAILROAD  CONSOLIDATION  301 

to  consolidate  outright  or  pool  earnings.^  Even  more 
menacing  in  the  eyes  of  Wisconsin  people  was  the 
intelligence  that  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  was 
negotiating  for  a  consohdation  with  both  of  these 
Milwaukee  railroads. ^ 

The  people  of  the  State  were  dismayed,  and  with 
good  reason,  at  the  prospect  of  having  fastened  upon 
them  so  immense  a  transportation  monopoly.  The 
press  of  Wisconsin,  notwithstanding  the  distraction 
of  exciting  events  at  the  front,  gravely  turned  to 
the  new  domestic  problem.  A  broadside  printed  by 
the  Milwaukee  Daily  Life  on  June  27,  1863,3  in  which 
the  alleged  project  of  the  "consohdationists"  was 
described  and  its  disastrous  consequences  upon  the 
future  of  Wisconsin  vividly  pictured,  gained  State- 
wide circulation.  In  Milwaukee,  where  the  agitation 
centered,  a  brisk  campaign  of  open  letters  and  edi- 
torials was  conducted  in  the  daily  newspapers,  which 
culminated  during  the  autumn  of  1863  in  two  largely 
attended  and  highly  interesting  public  meetings." 

The  friends   of  the   projected   consohdation,   who 
were    for    the    most    part    railroad    representatives, 

'  See  New  York  Herald,  June  17,  1863;  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  June  20, 
1863;  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  Railway  Company,  Directors'  Pro- 
ceedings, June  24,  1863. 

2  New  York  Herald,  July  31,  1863;  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  Rail- 
way Company,  Directors'  Proceedings,  Nov.  19,  1863  and  July  15,  1864. 

3  Bound  with  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  Railway  Company,  Re- 
ports, 1861-66.  See  also  Milwaukee  Doily  Wis.,  June  13  to  Sept.  1,  1863; 
Milwaukee  Sentinel,  June  27,  1863;  Prairie  du  Chien  Courier,  July  9, 
1863;  La  Crosse  Democratic  Journal,  Nov.  25,  1863;  La  Crosse  Democrat, 
Dec.  8,  1863;  B.  H.  Meyer,  "Early  Railroad  Legislation  in  Wisconsin,"  in 
Wisconsin  Academy  of  Sciences,  Transactions,  XII,  364-79. 

^For  reports  of  the  proceedings  of  these  meetings  see  Milwaukee 
Daily  Wis.,  Aug.  24,  1863;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Aug.  25  and  Sept.  10, 
1863;  Wis.  Acad,  of  Sciences,  Trans.,  XII,  365-71. 


302  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

usually  ignored  the  charge  that  the  Chicago  &  North- 
western was  to  be  included  in  the  combination  and 
directed  their  defense  chiefly  to  the  necessity  for 
combining  the  Milwaukee  lines.  Shrewdly  making 
capital  of  the  rivalry  existing  between  Milwaukee  and 
Chicago,  they  pictured  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern 
as  a  greedy,  all-devouring  octopus,  that  was  encircling 
Milwaukee  with  its  tentacles  and  carrying  off  to 
Illinois  the  riches  of  the  Badger  State.  They  repre- 
sented it  as  being  interested  not  so  much  in  earning 
dividends  for  its  stockholders  as  in  building  up  the 
city  of  Chicago  at  the  expense  of  the  Wisconsin 
metropolis.  They  maintained  that,  by  intersecting 
both  of  Milwaukee's  east  and  west  railroad  lines 
and  by  holding  out  to  each  of  them  the  bribe  of  the 
through  business  to  Chicago  which  it  controlled,  it 
was  able  to  pit  these  roads  against  each  other  in 
competition  ruinous  alike  to  themselves  and  to  Mil- 
waukee. Against  such  a  policy  the  only  safety  for 
the  Badger  city  lay  in  the  consolidation  of  her  lines.^ 
A  consolidated  railroad  would  add  to  the  prosperity  of 
the  Cream  City  by  erecting  tap  lines  into  the  wheat  fields 
of  Iowa  and  Minnesota  and  extending  much-desired 
branch  lines  into  Wisconsin.  Since  it  could  be  operated 
more  economically  than  a  number  of  small  units,  it 
would  be  able  to  grant  the  public  cheaper  and  better 
service,  while  the  State  would  be  guarded  against  any 
abuse  of  monopolistic  power  by  the  regulatory  power 
of  the  legislature,  the  competition  of  other  routes  in 
Illinois,  and  considerations  of  enlightened  self-interest.^ 

1  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  June  13  and  29,  and  Aug.  24,  1863;  Milwaukee 
Sentinel,  Mar.  4,  1867;  Gary,  The  History  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and 
St.  Paul  Railway  Company,  87-88;  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  XI,  447. 

'Wis.  Sen.  Jour.,  1867.  799-809. 


RAILROAD  CONSOLIDATION  303 

To  such  reasoning  the  "anti-monopolists"  replied 
that  the  consolidation,  far  from  benefiting  Milwau- 
kee, would  actually  destroy  her  future.  The  com- 
bination was  to  include  not  merely  the  Milwaukee 
roads,  but  also  the  hated  Northwestern,  and  in  a 
union  of  such  elements  it  was  easy  to  foresee  which 
would  predominate.  The  Milwaukee  roads,  nursed 
by  the  city  in  their  infancy,  and  in  behalf  of  which  it 
had  plunged  itself  deeply  into  debt,  would  end  by 
becoming  feeders  of  the  Northwestern;  the  proud 
Cream  City  would  become  but  the  tail  to  the  kite 
of  Chicago.  Wall  Street  and  Chicago  speculators, 
who  were  engineering  the  consolidation  and  who  in  the 
event  of  its  consummation  would  line  their  pockets 
with  $20,000,000  of  watered  stock,  would  be  the  only 
ones  to  profit  by  the  transaction.  Upon  the  farmers 
and  merchants  of  Wisconsin  would  fall  the  crushing 
burden  of  paying  dividends  upon  a  more  than  doubled 
railroad  valuation,  while  freight  tariffs,  already  so  ex- 
cessive that  honest  toil  went  unrequited,  would  be  still 
further  increased.  The  farmers  of  Wisconsin,  like  their 
unhappy  brethren  of  lUinois,  would  find  it  cheaper  to 
burn  their  grain  for  fuel  than  to  ship  it  by  rail  to  the  East. 
The  monopoly  would  "control  the  legislation,  overawe 
the  courts,  override  the  constitution  when  and  as  it 
pleased,  and  hold  every  public  man  at  its  mercy,  from 
Governor  down  to  county  officers."^  Owned  and 
controlled  outside  of  the  State,  it  would  be  another 
Camden  &  Amboy  and  Wisconsin  would  be  the  igno- 
minious New  Jersey  of  the  Northwest. - 

1  Report  of  a  committee  of  the  Milwaukee  anti-consolidation  mass 
meeting  printed  in  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Sept.  10,  1863. 

-  For  an  account  of  the  Camden  &  Amboy  Railroad  see  Fite,  Social  and 
Industrial  Conditions,  169-74. 


304  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

While  the  people  of  Wisconsin  were  thus  anxiously 
debating  the  dangers  of  consolidation,  negotiations 
between  the  railroads  concerned  quietly  continued  in 
New  York.  Apparently  an  arrangement  of  some 
kind  was  very  nearly  concluded  between  the  Mil- 
waukee &  St.  Paul  Company  and  the  Milwaukee  & 
Prairie  du  Chien  Company  in  June,  1863  when,  as 
the  result  of  an  announcement  that  a  consolidation 
had  actually  taken  place,  the  stock  of  the  Prairie  du 
Chien  road  took  a  sudden  rise  in  value. ^  For  the 
time  being,  however,  it  proved  impossible  for  any 
of  the  roads  to  agree  upon  the  terms  of  union,  and 
the  anti-consolidation  movement  quietly  disinte- 
grated.^ 

After  1863  the  people  of  Wisconsin  were  not  again 
actively  aroused  against  railroad  consolidations.  In- 
deed, even  the  forcible  absorption  of  the  Prairie  du 
Chien  road  by  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  in  1866 
failed  to  excite  any  hostile  comment.  On  the  contrary 
it  was  formally  approved  in  1867  by  the  Milwaukee 
Chamber  of  Commerce  and  a  mass  meeting  of  Mil- 
waukee citizens.^  When  in  1869  Alexander  Mitchell 
was  elected  president  of  the  Northwestern  road  the 
entire  press  of  Milwaukee  and  the  press  of  the  State 
in  general  expressed  only  gratification. 

The  course  of  the  State  legislature  was  marked 
by  the  same  vacillation.''  In  1857,  during  the  last 
week  and  a  half  of  the  session,  the  railroad  interests 
of  Milwaukee  and  Chicago  quietly  slipped  into  en- 

1  New  York  Times,  June  18,  1863. 

2  New  York  Herald,  July  10,  1863;  New  York  Times,  July  11,  1863. 

3  Milwaukee  News,  Feb.  6  and  12,  and  Mar.  3,  1867. 

■•  For  early  legislation  relating  to  consolidations  see  Wis.  Acad,  of  Sci- 
ences, Trans.,  XII,  365-71. 


RAILROAD  CONSOLIDATION  305 

actment  a  bill  which  gave  to  railroads  within  Wis- 
consin practically  unlimited  powers  of  consolidation.^ 
During  the  panic  years  following  1857  no  notice  was 
taken  of  this  extraordinary  act,  but  in  1860  it  was 
discovered  and  exposed  by  L.  P.  Harvey,  newly 
elected  secretary  of  state,  and  later  governor  of  the 
State.  A  bill  was  at  once  introduced  in  the  session 
of  1860  to  repeal  the  law.  It  passed  the  Senate  but 
was  defeated  in  the  Assembly. ^  During  the  consoli- 
dation excitement  of  1863  a  baseless  tale  gained  wide 
acceptance  in  the  State,  and  was  repeated  with 
variations  by  such  prominent  public  men  as  Matt  H. 
Carpenter  and  Josiah  A.  Noonan,  to  the  effect  that 
the  repeal  measure  had  been  unanimously  passed  by 
the  legislature,  had  been  signed  by  the  governor,  and 
duly  filed  in  the  secretary  of  state's  office,  but  had 
been  stolen  by  unscrupulous  agents  of  the  consoli- 
dationists^  before  it  could  be  pubhshed.  The  story 
was  denied  by  the  senator  who  had  introduced  the 
measure,  by  the  secretary  of  state,  and  by  the  evi- 
dence of  the  legislative  journals,  but  it  persisted  for 
many  years  as  a  popular  charge  against  the  railroads.'* 
The  agitation  of  1863  bore  somewhat  empty  fruit 
in  1864  when  the  consolidation  law  of  1857  was 
actually  repealed.^     It  is  to  be  observed,  however, 

1  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1857,  chap.  55;  see  also  "Bill  No.  396  A"  in  Wis.  Sen. 
Jour,  and  Wis.  Assem.  Jour,  for  1857,  indexed  under  "Railroads." 

2  See  "Bill  No.  168  S"  in  Wis.  Sen  Jour,  and  Wis.  Assem.  Jour,  for  1860, 
indexed  under  "Amendments  to  Revised  Statutes." 

3  Milwaukee  Daily  Life,  June  27,  1863;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Aug.  25, 
1863;  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  July  2,  1863;  La  Crosse  Republican,  Dec.  2, 
1863. 

'  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Sept.  12,  1863;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Sept.  21,  1863; 
Wis.  Acad,  of  Sciences,  Trans.,  XII,  365-68. 
s  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1864,  chap.  49. 

20 


306  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

that  no  statute  expressly  forbidding  combinations 
was  enacted  in  its  place.  Nor  did  the  railroads  of 
Wisconsin  find  any  great  difTiculty  in  persuading 
subsequent  legislatures  to  authorize  by  special  en- 
actments such  consolidations  as  they  desired,  or 
to  legalize  consolidations  efTected  without  the  sanc- 
tion of  law. 

In  1867,  it  is  true,  an  act  was  passed,  much  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  State  press,  prohibiting  forever 
the  consolidation  of  the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  or 
Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  companies  with  the 
hated  Chicago  &  Northwestern.^  It  was  a  somewhat 
suspicious  circumstance,  however,  that  one  of  the 
foremost  advocates  of  the  measure  was  Alexander 
Mitchell.  The  position  which  he  and  his  associates 
assumed  was  that  such  a  law  protected  the  State 
against  the  encroachments  of  the  powerful  Chicago 
railroad. 2  Unfriendly  critics  asserted,  however,  that 
this  bill  had  been  introduced  solely  to  ward  off  oppo- 
sition to  two  other  of  Mitchell's  bills  legalizing  and 
completing  the  consolidation  of  the  Milwaukee  & 
St.  Paul  and  the  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien. ^ 
That  the  much-touted  anti-consolidation  law  was 
never  taken  seriously  by  those  whom  it  was  intended 
to  affect  was  sufficiently  shown  within  the  following 
year  when  Mitchell  and  his  friends  were  elected 
directors  of  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  Railroad. 

The  wave  of  consolidation  that  thus  swept  over 
Wisconsin  during  the  decade  of  the  sixties  left  many 

1  Wis.  Priv.  Laws,  1867,  chap.  433.    See  Wis.  Sen.  Jour.,  1867,  799-809 
for  a  committee  report  frankly  urging  railroad  consolidations. 

^  Speech  of  Alexander  Mitchell  in  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  Mar.  4,  1867. 
3  Wis.  Priv.  Laws,  1867,  chaps.  431  ana  435. 


RAILROAD  CONSOLIDATION  307 

difficult  problems  in  its  wake.  So  long  as  railroads 
operated  independently  their  competition  had  pro- 
tected the  public,  at  least  in  a  measure,  against  over- 
charges. In  1870,  however,  practically  the  entire 
transportation  service  of  the  State  was  controlled  by 
two  allied  railroad  corporations,  and  it  was  necessary 
to  find  a  new  safeguard  against  oppression.  Wiscon- 
sin eventually  obtained  this  in  public  regulation. 
In  the  Granger  laws  of  1874  she  answered  the  challenge 
of  a  previous  decade  of  railroad  combination. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  ANTIMONOPOLY  REVOLT 

While  the  people  of  Wisconsin  were  apparently 
indifferent  to  railroad  consolidations,  they  were 
thoroughly  aroused  over  an  allied  transportation 
problem,  the  rapid  increase  of  freight  charges.  No 
other  question  in  the  State,  excepting  always  national 
issues,  called  forth  during  the  years  1863  to  1866 
such  w^idespread  popular  feeling.  The  agitation 
extended  not  only  over  Wisconsin  but  Illinois,  Min- 
nesota, and  Iowa;  in  fact  over  all  that  region  west 
of  Lake  Michigan  which  ten  years  later  was  the  seat 
of  the  Granger  uprising.  Gathering  force  during  the 
temporary  depression  that  attended  the  close  of 
the  Civil  War,  it  culminated  in  the  so-called  "anti- 
monopoly"  revolt  of  1865-66,  an  outbreak  which, 
although  little  known,  is  extremely  significant  in  the 
transportation  history  of  the  Northwest. 

The  railroad  companies  of  this  region  were  not 
wholly  to  be  blamed  for  this  popular  disturbance. 
They  were  themselves  the  victims  of  war  conditions. 
The  advances  which  they  made  in  freight  rates  were 
to  a  considerable  extent  but  compensatory  for  the 
depreciation  of  currency  due  to  greenback  inflation. 
The  prices  of  railroad  supplies,  materials,  and  labor 
were  increasing  by  leaps  and  bounds,  and  they 
justly  maintained  that  rates  of  transportation  must 

[308  1 


ANTl  MONOPOLY  REVOLT  309 

rise  in  corresponding  measure.  In  addition,  they 
were  subject  to  burdensome  Federal  and  State  war 
taxes,  both  direct  and  indirect,  which  they  felt 
obliged  to  shift  upon  their  patrons.^  According  to 
an  estimate  of  Alexander  Mitchell  the  Milwaukee  & 
St.  Paul  Company  paid  into  the  United  States  treas- 
ury in  1865  not  less  than  20  per  cent  of  its  gross 
earnings,  "so  that  a  farmer  who  pays  us  15  cents 
per  bushel  for  bringing  wheat  to  market,  pays  to  us 
really  but  12  cents,  and  to  the  Federal  Government  3 
cents. "2 

The  blockade  of  the  lower  Mississippi  was  likewise 
responsible  for  forcing  up  freight  rates,  indirectly, 
by  removing  the  wholesome  competition  of  the  water 
route,  directly,  by  thrusting  upon  the  railroads  run- 
ning to  the  East  the  additional  burden  of  the  northern 
commerce  that  formerly  was  transported  by  the 
river  route.  How  great  was  the  strain  of  this  double 
burden  may  be  seen  by  comparing  the  tonnage 
statistics  of  Wisconsin's  chief  east  and  west  railroads 
before  and  after  the  opening  of  hostilities. 

The  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  Railroad  (Milwaukee 
&  St.  Paul)  in  1860  carried  westward  from  La  Crosse 
only  28,627  tons  of  freight.  In  1861  it  carried  from 
that  city  84,939  tons  and  in  1865,  118,778  tons.    Its 

'  In  1862  the  State  tax  upon  railroads  was  increased  from  1  per  cent  on 
gross  earnings  to  3  per  cent.  For  a  complete  discussion  of  railroad  taxation 
in  Wisconsin  during  the  years  1860-70  involving  several  important  legal 
decisions  of  the  State  supreme  court  see  G.  E.  Snider,  Historij  of  the  Taxa- 
tion of  Railway  Corporations  in  Wisconsin  (Ms.  thesis,  1901,  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin  Library);  Wis.  Acad,  of  Sciences,  Trans.,  XII,  378-88; 
Gov.  E.  Salomon,  "Annual  Message,"  in  Wis.  Mess,  and  Docs.,  1863, 
p.  xii. 

2  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railway  Company,  Report,  1865,  5-6. 


310  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

total  east  and  west  freight  in  1860  was  but  157,680 
tons;  in  1861  it  was  274,174  tons  and  in  1865,  319,656 
tons.^  Statistics  for  the  Milwaukee  &  Mississippi 
(Prairie  du  Chien)  Railroad  for  1860  are  not  available, 
but,  judging  from  such  data  as  are  at  hand,  its  east- 
ward traffic  from  Prairie  du  Chien  in  that  year  was 
not  over  35,000  tons.  In  1861  it  was  100,599  tons,  and 
in  1865,  131,202  tons.  Its  total  east  and  west  traffic 
in  1859  amounted  to  only  163,970  tons;  in  1861  it 
was  305,794  tons.^ 

These  Wisconsin  railroads,  as  we  have  seen,  had 
been  completed  but  a  short  time  when  the  war  broke 
out.  They  had  been  built,  moreover,  with  an  eye  to 
developing  a  pioneer  country  rather  than  to  carrying 
an  existing  commerce.  For  the  most  part  they  were 
poorly  and  uneconomically  constructed,  and  their 
equipment  was  inadequate  to  the  needs  of  even 
their  normal  business.  They  were  ill  prepared  for 
the  sudden  deluge  of  traffic  that  poured  upon  them 
in  1861  and  they  responded,  naturally  enough,  by 
forcing  up  their  rates. ^ 

Freight  tariiTs  at  competitive  points,  and  notably 
those  between  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  lake 
shore,  were  at  this  time  customarily  established  by 

^  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  Railroad  Company,  Reports,  1852-63;  Milwau- 
kee &  St.  Paul  Railway  Company,  Reports,  1865-69. 

2  Milwaukee  &  Mississippi  Railroad  Company,  Reports,  1849-61; 
Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  Railway  Company,  Reports,  1861-66. 

^  Agricultural  products  ordinarily  moved  only  during  the  spring  and 
autumn  months  when  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Mississippi  River  were  free 
from  ice.  As  a  result  the  railroads  of  Wisconsin  were  annually  swamped 
with  traffic  during  the  shipping  seasons  and  comparatively  idle  during 
the  remainder  of  the  year.  This  difficulty,  peculiar  to  agricultural  regions, 
was  accentuated  by  the  war  and  no  doubt  accounts  in  part  for  the  increase 
in  rates. 


ANTIMONOPOLY  REVOLT  311 

agreement  among  the  several  competing  railroads. 
There  was  then  nothing  unlawful  or  improper  about 
such  a  course,  and  no  effort  was  made  to  hold  it 
secret.  Each  spring  or  oftener,  as  occasion  required, 
the  representatives  of  the  five  railroad  lines  running 
to  the  lake  shore  from  La  Crosse,  Prairie  du  Chien, 
and  Dunleith  met  in  convention  at  Chicago  or  Mil- 
waukee and  agreed  upon  rates  between  River  and  Lake. 

The  most  important  question  which  came  up  for 
decision  at  such  conventions  was  the  charge  upon 
wheat.  Wheat  was  the  staple  of  agriculture,  not  only 
in  Wisconsin  but  in  all  the  states  west  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan. Increased  rates  for  transportation  of  this 
grain  came  home  directly  to  practically  every  inhabit- 
ant of  the  region,  a  circumstance  pregnant  with 
danger  for  the  railroad  companies  as  they  were  later  to 
discover  in  the  Granger  uprising.  It  is  necessary  to 
examine  in  some  detail,  therefore,  the  movement  of 
wheat  tariffs  during  the  years  of  the  Civil  War 
Roughly  such  a  study  will  indicate  the  trend  of  other 
transportation  charges  during  the  same  period. 

In  the  spring  of  1860  the  wheat  charge  from  La 
Crosse  or  Prairie  du  Chien  to  Milwaukee  or  Chicago 
was  10  cents  per  bushel.  In  the  spring  of  1861,  a 
month  after  the  assault  on  Fort  Sumter,  it  rose  to 
13  cents  per  bushel.^  Thereafter  for  a  year  and  a  half 
it  fluctuated  considerably,  though  with  a  slightly 
downward  tendency.  In  the  spring  of  1863  it  again 
bounded  upward  and  now  continued  swiftly  to 
increase  until  the  end  of  the  war.     By  April,    1865 

1  This  was  an  unfortunately  timed  advance  since  prices  of  all  kinds  were 
at  that  time  swiftly  declining  and  wheat  in  particular  was  suffering  in  the 
depression. 


312  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

it  reached  the  extraordinary  height  of  20  cents  per 
bushel,  the  highest  rate  the  region  has  ever  known. ^ 

Intimately  associated  with  the  railroads  in  the 
carrying  trade  were  the  Mississippi  River  steamboats. 
The  latter  performed  the  service  of  collecting  the 
grain  carted  to  the  river  towns  by  the  farmers  of 
northwestern  Wisconsin,  eastern  Minnesota,  and 
eastern  Iowa,  and  transporting  it  to  the  railroad 
terminals.  La  Crosse,  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  Dunleith. 
Three  prominent  corporations  were  engaged  in  this 
labor  during  the  Civil  War:  the  La  Crosse  &  St.  Paul 
Packet  Company,  which  ran  in  connection  with  the 
MiHaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railway  at  La  Crosse;  the 
Galena,  Dubuque,  Dunleith  &  Minnesota  Packet 
Company,  which  made  running  connections  with 
the  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  at  Prairie  du  Chien 
and  the  Illinois  Central  at  Dunleith;  and  the  Northern 
Line  Packet  Company  which  ran  to  St.  Louis. ^ 

The  transportation  charges  imposed  by  these  lines 
upon  freights  local  to  the  river  depended  under 
normal  conditions  upon  two  factors:  the  pressure  of 
traffic  and  the  depth  of  water  in  the  river  channel. 
Usually  in  the  spring  of  the  year  when  traffic  was 
light  and  the  water  was  of  sufficient  height  to  be 
navigable    by   the   largest   steamboats,    the   charges 

1  Data  relating  to  transportation  charges  on  Wisconsin  railroads  are 
extremely  scattering  and  dilTicult  of  access.  That  which  is  here  presented 
is  the  result  of  a  laborious  search  through  newspaper  files  in  the  Wisconsin 
Historical  Library  for  the  years  from  1860  to  1867.  See  particularly  Mil- 
waukee Sentinel;  Milwaukee  Daily  Wisconsin;  Prescott  Democrat;  Prescott 
Transcript;  La  Crosse  Republican;  Polk  Countij  Press;  St.  Paul  Pioneer; 
Hudson  Star  and  Times;  Chicago  Tribune;  and  Chicago  Times. 

2  A  number  of  unimportant  "wild"  boats  were  also  in  operation,  fol- 
lowing no  definite  schedule,  but  proceeding  wherever  traffic  chanced  to 
take  them.     See  post,  chap.  xiv. 


ANTIMONOPOLY  REVOLT  313 

were  low.  In  July  or  August,  however,  when  scant 
water  set  in  and  the  new  crop  pressed  to  market,  they 
rose.  Invariably  they  were  higher  in  the  fall  than 
at  any  other  time  of  the  year. 

The  local  river  rates  of  the  packet  lines  were  of  far  less 
importance,  however,  than  the  so-called  through 
charges.  The  latter  were  the  tariffs  imposed  upon  traffic 
the  origin  or  destination  of  which  was  the  lake  shore. 
Freight  of  such  a  nature  was  handled  by  both  railroads 
and  steamboats,  and  consequently  the  charges  imposed 
upon  it  were  established  jointly.  In  practice  through 
rates  were  fixed  at  the  railroad  rate  conventions  held  in 
Chicago  or  Milwaukee  during  each  shipping  season.^ 

The  forces  that  led  to  the  increase  of  railroad 
charges  during  the  years  of  the  war  have  already 
been  touched  upon.  The  extraordinary  advance  of 
river  charges  is  to  be  accounted  for  by  three  factors. 
One  was  the  scarcity  of  steamboats  on  the  upper 
Mississippi,  resulting  from  the  repeated  government 
requisitions  for  vessels  to  be  used  in  the  military 
service.  Another  was  the  unusually  low  stage  of 
water  that  prevailed  in  the  river  during  the  seasons 
1863  and  1864,  rendering  navigation  difficult  and 
expensive.  The  chief  and  deciding  factor,  however, 
was  the  complete  suppression  of  steamboat  competi- 
tion on  the  river  as  the  result  of  the  organization  in 
the  spring  of  1863  of  an  extraordinary  combination  of 
river-and-rail  transportation  interests. 

Railroads  ever  since  their  construction  had  domi- 
nated the  steamboat  trade.     They  were  in  a  position 

'  When  freight  was  shipped  to  Milwaukee  or  Chicago  via  La  Crosse  or 
Prairie  du  Chien  from  river  points  above  Trempealeau,  the  steamboat 
company  customarily  received  one-third  of  the  through  rate  and  the 
railroad  company  two-thirds. 


314  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

to  make  and  unmake  river  carriers.  The  through 
traffic  which  they  controlled  was  the  life  of  the  river 
commerce.  No  steamboat  owner  had  any  chance 
of  subsistence  if  railroads  discriminated  against  him. 
Railroads,  it  is  true,  had  always  favored  the  regular 
packet  lines.  They  had  uniformly  turned  over  to  the 
latter  all  west-bound  passengers  and  freight  not 
specifically  consigned  to  independent  vessels.  Such 
favoritism,  however,  was  not  necessarily  fatal  to  the 
independent  vessels.  So  long  as  the  latter  obtained 
equal  treatment  in  the  transportation  of  east-bound 
through  freight,  they  could  manage  to  maintain 
themselves. 

Events  occurring  in  1862  and  1863,  however, 
removed  every  vestige  of  equality.  The  first  of  these, 
which  will  be  discussed  later,  was  the  absorption  by  a 
single  great  steamboat  corporation,  of  practically  the 
entire  vessel  interest  north  of  Dubuque.  The  second, 
still  more  important,  was  the  entrance  as  directors 
and  heavy  stockholders  into  this  corporation  of 
prominent  officials  of  the  several  railroads  terminating 
at  the  river.^  A  practical  monopoly  of  all  the 
railroad  and  steamboat  interests  of  this  region  came 
thus  into  being.  Needless  to  say  competition  on  the 
river  came  at  once  to  an  end. 

Independent  steamboats  now  received  short  shrift. 
By  an  amazing  system  of  discriminations  the  railroads 
drove  them  from  the  upper  river. ^  In  the  autumn 
of  1865,  for  example,  the  railroads  charged  independ- 
ent vessels  6  cents  per  bushel  more  for  transporting 

1  See  post,  chap,  xiv;  also  Minn.  Hist.  Colls.,  VIII,  408-9. 

2  Milwaukee  Sentinel.  Mar.  26  and  28,  and  April  1,  1864,  Sept.  6  and 
12,  1865;  Chicago  Tribune,  April  5,  8,  and  16,  1864;  Milwaukee  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  Record  Book  B,  Feb.  11,  1865;  Ibid.,  21. 


ANTIMONOPOLY  REVOLT  315 

through  wheat  to  the  lake  shore  than  they  charged 
their  own  monopoly  packets.  A  similar  discrimina- 
tion upon  flour  amounted  to  the  surprising  figure  of 
28  cents  per  barrel.^  Outside  vessels  found  it  ex- 
ceedingly difficult,  moreover,  to  obtain  facihties  for 
unloading  at  the  railroad  elevators.  The  merchants 
of  St.  Croix  and  Polk  counties  in  Wisconsin,  and 
Chisago  and  Washington  counties  in  Minnesota,  in 
the  winter  of  1864-65  built  a  steamboat  and  several 
barges  with  which  they  essayed  to  do  their  own 
carrying.  The  railroads,  however,  utterly  refused  to 
receive  their  shipments  upon  equitable  terms  unless 
they  first  agreed  to  pay  over  to  the  monopoly  packet 
line  $9,000  in  "damages,"  and  further  agreed  never  to 
compete  with  any  of  the  steamboats  of  the  packet 
line.  The  merchants  after  several  months  of  negotia- 
tion abandoned  their  project  in  despair  and  withdrew 
their  vessel.- 

Freight  rates  reflected  this  destruction  of  competi- 
tion. In  the  spring  of  1860  farmers  residing  at  Pres- 
cott  or  Hudson,  the  northernmost  river  points  in  Wis- 
consin, paid  a  through  rate  of  10  cents  a  bushel  to 
ship  their  wheat  by  steamboat  and  railroad  to  Mil- 
waukee or  Chicago.^  During  the  autumn  of  1860  the 
tariff  varied,  falling  for  a  time  as  a  result  of  a  fierce 
steamboat  and  railroad  war  to  4  cents  per  bushel,  and 
laterrising,  when  the  immense  crop  of  1860  was  thrown 
upon  the  market,  to  the  maximum  height  of  15  cents 

^  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Sept.  6,  1865. 

'^See  report  of  the  St.  Paul  anti-monopoly  convention  printed  in  St. 
Paul  Weekly  Pioneer,  Feb.  16,  1866;  also  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Feb.  14, 
Sept.  6  and  12,  1865;  Wis.  Private  Laws,  1864,  chap.  229. 

^The  steamboat  rates  quoted  in  the  river  newspapers  are  usually 
through  rates. 


316  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

per  bushel.  In  the  spring  of  1861  it  was  12  cents;  im- 
mediately upon  the  outbreak  of  the  war  it  again  rose 
to  15  cents.  During  the  fall  of  1861  and  the  spring  of 
1862  it  was  once  more  12  cents  and  15  cents  respect- 
ively. Beginning  with  1863,  however,  it  ceased  to 
fluctuate.  In  the  spring  of  that  year  it  was  fixed  for 
all  points  above  La  Crosse  at  18  cents.  In  the 
autumn  of  1863,  it  was  increased  to  25  cents.  In  the 
spring  of  1865  it  rose  to  35  cents  from  Hudson  and 
34  cents  from  Prescoit.^ 

In  order  to  grasp  the  full  import  of  these  advances 
it  is  desirable  to  analyze  them,  apportioning  to  the 
steamboat  and  railroad  companies  their  respective 
shares.  In  the  spring  of  1860  the  farmers  of  Prescott 
and  Hudson  paid  only  3  or  4  cents  to  packet  com- 
panies to  carry  a  bushel  of  wheat  to  La  Crosse  or 
Prairie  du  Chien.  In  the  spring  of  1865  they  paid 
15  cents. 2  In  the  spring  of  1860  they  paid  to  railroad 
companies  only  6  or  7  cents  to  complete  the  shipment 
of  this  grain  to  the  lake  shore.  In  the  spring  of  1865 
they  paid  20  cents. 

The  price  of  wheat,  it  is  true,  had  also  risen  rapidly, 
but  the  advance  did  not  compare  with  the  increased 
cost  of  transportation.^  During  the  shipping  season 
of  1864  the  value  of  this  grain  reached  a  higher  aver- 
age than  at  any  other  period  in  the  Civil  War.     It 

'  During  the  early  sixties  the  through  rate  on  wheat  was  ordinarily 
the  same  for  all  points  on  the  Mississippi  River  above  La  Crosse,  so  that 
Trempealeau  paid  as  high  a  rate  as  St.  Paul  which  was  over  one  hundred 
miles  farther  up  the  river.  During  the  closing  years  of  the  war  through 
rates  began  to  be  graduated  somewhat  like  local  rates,  according  to  dis- 
tance of  shipment. 

2  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  April  7,  1865;  Prescott  Journal,  April  8,  1865. 

3  See  ante,  chap.  i. 


ANTIMONOPOLY  REVOLT  317 

was  then  but  one  and  seven-tenths  as  great  as  during 
the  shipping  season  of  1860.^  In  the  same  interval 
the  cost  of  transporting  it  from  River  to  Lake  had 
increased  two  and  a  half  times.  In  April,  1865  the 
price  of  wheat  had  fallen  in  Milwaukee  to  nearly  the 
level  of  April,  1860.  Carrying  costs,  however,  were 
three  and  a  half  times  greater.^  The  farmers  of 
northwestern  Wisconsin  in  the  spring  of  1865  paid 
transportation  companies  nearly  one-third  of  their 
crop  for  the  short  river-and-rail  carriage  of  the  re- 
maining two-thirds  across  the  State.  This  they  were 
compelled  to  do  despite  the  fact  that  economies  of  a 
vital  character  had  been  efTected  in  grain  transpor- 
tation during  the  early  years  of  the  Civil  War.^ 

It  is  instructive  to  compare  the  rates  charged  by 
this  river-and-rail  combination  with  the  rates  in 
vogue  on  the  Great  Lakes.  To  ship  a  bushel  of  wheat 
from  Milwaukee  to  New  York  by  way  of  the  Great 
Lakes  and  the  Erie  Canal,  a  distance  of  some  1,350 
miles,  including  transfer  charges  at  Buffalo  and  tolls 

^  Statistics  relating  to  wheat  prices  are  from  Milwaukee  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  Reports,  1860-70. 

'^According  to  Fite,  Social  and  Industrial  Conditions,  15-16,  44-45, 
grain  rates  on  railroads  in  the  North  as  a  whole  actually  declined  after 
1861.  This  appears  to  be  contradicted,  however,  by  data  printed  in  an 
article  by  William  P.  Grosvenor  in  the  Atlantic  Monthlij  for  November, 
1873,  599-60.  According  to  Grosvenor  the  average  per  ton  per  mile  re- 
ceipts of  the  five  great  through  roads  carrying  western  produce  to  the 
Atlantic  in  competition  with  the  lake  and  canal  route  during  the  decade 
1860-70  were: 


1860 

2.01  cents 

1866 

2.74  cents 

1861 

(slightly  less  than  1860) 

1867 

2.36   " 

1862 

2.05  cents 

1868 

2.11   " 

1863 

2.16   " 

1869 

1.89   " 

1864 

2.58  " 

1870 

1.53   " 

1865 

2.83   " 

1871 

1.48  " 

3  See  post,  chaps,  xiv  and  xv. 


318 


WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


through  the  Erie  Canal/  cost  5  cents  less  in  April, 
1865  than  to  carry  it  from  Hudson  to  Milwaukee, 
a  river-and-rail  carriage  of  but  330  miles.  To  ship 
a  bushel  of  wheat  from  Milwaukee  or  Chicago  to 
Buffalo,  a  lake  carriage  of  approximately  1,000 
miles,  cost  5  cents  less  than  a  river  carriage  of  but 
130  miles  from  Hudson  to  La  Crosse. ^ 


1  Freight  rates  from  Milwaukee  or  Cliicago  to  New  York  for  the  years 
1860  to  1870  are  printed  in  U.  S.  Statistical  Abstract,  1902,  416.  For  trans- 
fer charges  at  Buffalo  during  this  period,  see  U.  S.  Inland  Waterways  Com- 
mission, Preliminary  Report,  1908,  232,  note  a.  See  also  Milwaukee 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  Reports,  and  Chicago  Board  of  Trade,  Reports, 
for  the  years  1860  to  1870. 

From  St.  Paul  to  St.  Louis,  a  distance  of  800  miles,  the  charges  by 
steamboat,  averaged  for  each  season,  from  1857  to  1873  were: 


Wheat  per  bu. 

Flour  per  bbl. 

1857 

15 

50 

1858 

14 

50 

1859 

15 

50 

1860 

16 

52 

1861 

15 

50 

1862 

18 

60 

1863 

19 

62 

1864 

25 

75 

1865 

24 

73 

1866 

23 

72 

1867 

21 

70 

1868 

20 

68 

1869 

20 

68 

1870 

18 

60 

1871 

15 

50 

1872 

15 

50 

See  43  Cong.,  1  sess..  Senate  Report,  No.  307,  Transportation  Routes  to 
the  Seaboard  (Washington,  1874),  pt.  II,  594;  also  pt.  I,  204. 

*  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1865,  49-51;  also  Chicago 


ANTI MONOPOLY  REVOLT  319 

No  doubt  it  was  cheaper  to  carry  freight  on  the 
Great  Lakes  than  on  the  Mississippi,  for  the  carrying 
capacity  of  lake  vessels  was  greater  than  that  of  river 
craft  and  the  difficulties  of  lake  navigation  were  less 
than  those  on  the  river.  Yet  ignoring  absolute  rates 
and  comparing  only  relative  increases  for  the  five- 
year  period  under  review,  we  find  the  same  striking 
discrepancies.  We  have  seen  that  river  rates  in- 
creased from  April,  1860  to  April,  1865  more  than 
threefold.  Lake  rates,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
practically  the  same  in  April,  1865  as  in  April,  1860.^ 

During  the  early  years  of  the  Civil  War  shippers 
occasionally  found  relief  from  such  exactions  in  the 
dissensions  of  the  railroad  and  the  steamboat  com- 
panies. The  quarrels  of  the  steamboat  companies 
dated  back  to  the  very  beginnings  of  the  river  traffic. 
Those  of  the  railroads  were  more  recent,  as  their  lines 
had  come  into  competition  with  each  other  only  upon 
the  completion  of  their  tracks  to  the  Mississippi. ^ 
The  through  trade  of  the  river  was  the  bone  of  all 
such  contentions.  Secret  tariff  cuttings  or  the  grant- 
ing of  special  favors  or  free  passes  to  influence  traffic 
constituted  the  usual  cause.    The  packet  companies. 

Tribune,  Feb.  2  and  14,  1866;  Proceedings  of  the  Mississippi  River  Im- 
provement Convention,  held  at  Dubuque,  Iowa,  Feb.  14  and  15,  1866 
(Dubuque,  1866).  For  passenger  rate  increases  during  this  period  see 
Wisconsin  Railroad  Commissioner,  Report,  1874,  OfTicial  Papers,  113-29. 

1  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Reports,  1860-65;  Chicago  Board 
of  Trade,  Reports,  1860-65. 

^  Rate  wars  were  particularly  frequent  and  severe  on  railroads  running 
between  river  and  lake  during  the  hard  times  which  marked  the  later 
fifties.  They  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  financial  embarrassment  of 
these  roads  following  the  panic  of  1857.  See  Thompson,  Wheat  Growing 
in  Wisconsin,  146-48. 


320  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

in  addition  to  their  own  disputes,  invariably  became 
involved  in  those  of  the  railroads,  in  which  they 
ranged  themselves  each  on  the  side  of  its  respective 
railroad  patron.  Shippers  joyfully  welcomed  these 
wars  because  of  the  cheap  transportation  that  accom- 
panied them. 

A  notable  conflict,  out  of  which  arose  the  great 
steamboat  corporation  that  shortly  monopolized  the 
traffic  of  the  upper  river,  raged  during  the  summer  of 
1860.  It  had  its  roots  in  the  personal  grievances  of 
several  officials  of  the  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  Rail- 
road Company,  who  in  1859  had  attempted  to  secure 
from  the  steamboat  company,  with  which  their  road 
was  then  affiliated,  an  interest  in  the  latter's  im- 
mensely profitable  business.^  They  had  been  refused, 
and,  disgruntled,  had  induced  a  new  packet  line  to 
organize.  To  it  they  had  granted  all  the  patronage 
that  they  controlled. 

The  new  steamboat  organization,  the  La  Crosse  & 
St.  Paul  Packet  Company,  familiarly  known  as 
Davidson's  Line,  entered  upon  its  career  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1860.  The  old  organization,  the  Galena, 
Dubuque,  Dunleith  &  Minnesota  Packet  Company, 
was  determined  to  crush  it  at  the  outset.  For  years 
the  latter  had  enjoyed  undisturbed  the  patronage 
of  the  railroads  terminating  at  the  river.  It  did  not 
propose  to  surrender  any  part  of  it  without  a  struggle. 

Between  these  two  companies  and  their  respective 
railroad  allies  there  developed  during  the  summer 
and  autumn  of  1860  one  of  the  fiercest  conflicts  ever 
known  upon  the  upper  river.  The  through  rate  on 
wheat  from  St.  Paul  and  other  river  points  to  the 

'Minn.  Hist.  Colls.,  VIII,  408-14. 


ANTI MONOPOLY  REVOLT         321 

lake  shore  fell  to  4  cents  a  bushel.  Both  steamboat 
companies  for  a  time  carried  through  freight  from 
La  Crosse  to  any  river  point  above  absolutely  free 
of  charge.  One  company  transported  approximately 
3,000  tons  of  freight  without  a  cent  of  compensation. 
Passenger  rates  from  Prescott  to  the  lake  shore  fell 
from  $11.25  to  $3.50,  and  later  to  $1.  A  dollar  ticket 
included,  besides  transportation,  meals  and  berth 
aboard  the  packets.  It  was  far  cheaper  in  the  autumn 
of  1860  to  live,  eat,  and  sleep  on  the  palatial  river 
steamboats  than  in  the  humblest  country  tavern. 
Before  the  fight  was  over  the  Galena  Company  was 
nearly  ruined.^ 

Again  in  June,  1861,  and  once  more  in  the  autumn 
of  that  year,  short-rate  wars  were  in  progress  in 
which  the  same  belligerents  were  arrayed  against 
each  other.2  In  1862,  however,  the  Davidson  Line 
absorbed  its  older  rival,  and  thereafter  until  near 
the  close  of  the  decade  these  controversies  came  to 
an  end. 

Inland  shippers  in  Wisconsin  paid  even  higher 
proportionate  transportation  charges  than  those  on 
the  Mississippi  River.  Entirely  at  the  mercy  of 
railroad  companies,  they  were  losers  even  during 
rate  wars.  The  railroad  companies  invariably  reim- 
bursed themselves  for  their  losses  during  rate  con- 
flicts by  increasing  their  charges  upon  local  freights. 
Not   infrequently    cities    halfway    across    the    State 

1  Prescott  Transcript  and  Prescott  Democrat  for  August  to  November, 
1860;  La  Crosse  Weekly  Republican,  Sept.  18,  1867;  Minn.  Hist.  Colls., 
VIII,  408-14.     See  also  post,  chap.  xiv. 

2  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  July  11,  1861;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  .July  12 
and  19,  1861;  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Proceedings,  July  10, 
1861;  La  Crosse  Democrat,  Oct.  4,  1861. 


322  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

like  Madison,  Portage,  Beaver  Dam,  and  Ripon 
actually  paid  more  per  bushel  to  transport  their 
wheat  to  Milwaukee  than  the  cities  of  La  Crosse, 
Prairie  du  Chien,  and  Winona.^ 

The  farmers  and  merchants  of  Wisconsin  had  many- 
other  grievances  against  the  railroads.  Rate  favor- 
itism and  particularly  the  "drawback"  or  rebate 
system  were  sources  of  constant  complaint.  Pub- 
lished rates  applied  only  to  the  small  and  occasional 
shippers;  the  larger  ones  usually  secretly  received 
more  favorable  terms.  Employees  of  the  railroads 
were  often  permitted  to  engage  in  wheat  speculations, 
being  allowed  special  railroad  rates  by  reason  of 
which  they  were  able  to  crowd  out  of  business  bona 
fide  commission  merchants.  Milwaukee  millers  and 
warehousemen  faced  a  local  problem  of  excessive  and 
discriminatory  storage  charges  in  the  railroad  eleva- 
tors of  that  city.  The  southern  portion  of  the  State 
was  incensed  at  the  refusal  of  the  railroad  companies 
to  carry  cordwood  during  the  busy  shipping  seasons. 
The  problems  of  the  railroad  farm  mortgagors  and 
the  municipal  railroad  bonds  added  their  portion  to 
the  general  discontent.  Truly,  the  railroads  of  Wis- 
consin were  not  without  critics  during  the  years  of 
the  Civil  War. 

As  early  as  the  fall  of  1861  public  resentment  was 
stirring,  though  the  issue  was  then  overshadowed  in 
the  popular  mind  by  the  more  pressing  problems  of 
the  war.  In  the  consolidation  excitement  of  1863, 
however,  the  rate  question  occupied  a  conspicuous 

'  Wis.  State  Jour.,  April  28,  1863;  Hartford  Home  League,  Jan.  30, 
1864;  Portage  Register,  Aug.  12,  1865;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Sept.  3,  1865; 
Wis.  Sen.  Jour.,  1867,  649;  B.  H.  Hibbard,  "History  of  Agriculture  in  Dane 
County,"  University  of  Wisconsin,  Bulletin,  No.  101,  140-42. 


ANTI  MONOPOLY  REVOLT  323 

part  and  thereafter  came  more  and  more  to  the 
foreground.  When  the  schedules  of  the  spring  of 
1864  were  announced  the  settlers  of  western  Wis- 
consin and  Minnesota  were  stirred  to  action.  In 
every  important  river  shipping  center  they  held  mass 
meetings  of  indignation  and  protest.  On  Mar.  3, 
1864  they  assembled  to  take  counsel  in  a  spirited 
convention  at  Red  Wing,  Minnesota. 

However,  conventions  and  indignation  meetings 
served  only  to  reveal  their  helplessness.  The  resolu- 
tions of  condemnation  that  they  adopted  fell  upon 
deaf  ears.  The  only  constructive  proposal  that  the 
Red  Wing  convention  could  pursue  was  to  dispatch 
a  delegation  of  its  members  with  an  account  of  its 
grievances  to  the  politically  powerful  lake-shore 
region.  The  committee  succeeded  in  stirring  up  con- 
siderable interest  and  sympathy  in  Milwaukee  and 
Chicago  but  accomplished  little  else.  The  Chicago 
Mercantile  Association  and  the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade 
adoptedresolutionscondemning  the  tarifTand  denounc- 
ing the  policy  of  discrimination  that  closed  the  Missis- 
sippi River  to  steamboat  competition.  The  Milwaukee 
Chamber  of  Commerce  and  the  Milwaukee  Merchants' 
Association  in  still  more  vigorous  terms  called  upon  the 
Wisconsin  legislature  to  correct  these  abuses.^ 

At  a  meeting  called  in  Chicago  on  April  12,  1864  the 
railroad  companies,  however,  curtly  justified  their 
rates  as  reasonable,  and  upheld  the  policy  of  discrim- 
ination as  necessary  in  order  to  secure  regularity  of 
service. 2    How  little  they  were  impressed  by  all  the 

1  La  Crosse  Republican,  April  20,  1864;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Mar.  28, 
1864  and  Jan.  1,  1866. 

2  Chicago  Tribune,  April  16,  1864. 


324  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

agitation  was  seen  a  year  later  when,  in  the  face  of 
industrial  depression,  they  increased  the  through 
rates  on  wheat  to  35  cents  per  bushel. 

In  despair  the  farmers  of  the  upper  Mississippi 
now  turned  to  the  almost  abandoned  river  route  via 
St.  Louis  to  New  Orleans  and  New  York.  Much  to 
the  alarm  of  the  merchants  of  the  lake  ports,  wheat 
once  more  moved  in  considerable  quantities  to  the 
lower  river  during  the  shipping  season  of  1865.^ 
Railroad  apologists  asserted  that  this  was  the  natural 
result  of  the  reopening  of  the  river,  and  no  doubt 
their  explanations  contained  some  truth.  Others  be- 
lieved, however,  with  the  Chicago  Tribune,  that 
the  exactions  of  the  river-and-rail  monopoly  were 
responsible.  "Let  them  reflect,"  observed  that  jour- 
nal, "that  the  war  is  now  over,  that  the  Mississippi 
is  unobstructed,  that  under  the  most  favorable 
circumstances  a  considerable  portion  of  the  trade 
which  has  enriched  us  during  the  past  four  years  must 
now  be  attracted  to  that  channel.  Can  we  afford  to 
add  to  the  natural  attraction  of  the  Mississippi  the 
powerful  repulsion  of  exorbitant  railroad  freights 
on  all  lines  crossing  that  river  or  adjacent  to  it?  Can 
we  afford  to  allow  it  to  be  done?"^ 

At  length  in  May,  1865  the  railroad  and  steam- 
boat companies  consented  to  modify  their  charges. 
By  a  single  stroke  they  cut  7  cents  per  bushel  from 
their  wheat  rates  between  the  upper  Mississippi  and 
the  lake  shore. ^    However,  even  this  reduction  failed 

1  La  Crosse  Democrat,  May  29,  1865;  Chicago  Tribune,  Dec.  13  and  15, 
1865;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Dec.  11,  1865.  The  wheat  rate  from  Prescott  to 
St.  Louis  in  the  spring  of  1865  was  27  cents  per  bushel. 

2  Chicago  Tribune,  Dec.  11,  1865. 

3  Polk  County  Press,  May  27, 1865;  PrescottJoufna/,  May  20  and  27, 1865. 


ANTI  MONOPOLY  REVOLT  325 

to  appease  the  now  thoroughly  aroused  farmers.     The 
exactions  which  they  had  borne  with  such  patience  as 
they  could  during  the  prosperous  years  of  the  war 
were  now,  in  a  time  of  low  prices,  no  longer  to  be 
endured.      Wisconsin,   Minnesota,   northern   Illinois, 
and   northern   Iowa   were   ablaze  with   anti-railroad 
and  anti-steamboat  excitement.     The  entire  region 
west  of  Lake  Michigan  was  in  the  grip  of  its  first 
reaction   against   transportation   companies,    an   up- 
rising known  in  history  as  the  "anti-monopoly  revolt." 
Too  brief  to  attain  political  importance,  this  pop- 
ular dissatisfaction  found  expression  chiefly  in  vehe- 
ment indignation  meetings.     One  of  the  latter,  the 
St.  Paul  Anti-Monopoly  Convention  of  Feb.  7,  1866, 
was  typical,  and  of  considerable  importance  to  Wis- 
consin.^    Several  hundred  delegates  from  the  river 
counties  of  Minnesota  and  the  Badger  State  attended 
its  deliberations,  which  were  presided  over  by  the 
lieutenant-governor  of  Minnesota.     The  convention 
spent  much  of  its  time  in  denouncing  railroad  and 
steamboat  offenders,   particularly   Davidson's   Line. 
To  the  legislature  of  Wisconsin  it  sent  a  memorial 
demanding  State  regulation  of  her  railroads  and  a 
suggestion  that  the  through  rate  on  wheat  between 
river  and  lake  be  fixed  at  12  cents  per  bushel.    Like- 
wise it  appointed  a  special  delegation  of  its  members 
to  attend  the  sessions  of  the  Wisconsin  legislature  and 
secured  a  law  forbidding  any  further  discrimination 
by  Wisconsin  railroads  against  independent  steam- 
boats on  the  upper  Mississippi. 

1  For  a  complete  report  of  the  proceedings  of  this  convention  see  St. 
Paul  Weekli;  Pioneer,  Feb.  16,  1866;  see  also  Milwaukee  daily  papers  from 
Feb.  8  to  Feb.  16,  1866. 


326  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

It  advocated  four  proposals  for  restoring  competi- 
tion in  the  packet  and  railroad  trade.  Like  all  anti- 
monopoly  gatherings  it  emphasized  the  improvement 
of  the  Mississippi  River  channel,  which  it  made  the 
subject  of  an  urgent  memorial  to  Congress.  It 
encouraged  the  revival  of  the  former  river-and-ocean 
trade  via  New  Orleans  to  New  York,  by  ofTering  its 
support  to  the  various  steamboat  lines  below  St. 
Louis  that  made  connection  with  ocean  liners.  In 
order  to  secure  more  active  railroad  competition  it 
advocated  the  construction  of  a  railroad  line  from 
the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Mississippi  River  to 
the  head  of  Lake  Superior. 

Most  important  and  unique  of  all  its  plans  was 
that  of  establishing  a  cooperative  steamboat  line 
on  the  upper  Mississippi,  owned  and  controlled 
entirely  by  shippers  in  the  several  river  towns.  This 
had  been  suggested  by  a  proposal  to  organize  a 
shippers'  league,  advocated  at  a  preceding  St.  Paul 
meeting,  which  should  give  all  the  patronage  it  con- 
trolled to  a  selected  antimonopoly  packet  company.^ 
Four  steamboat  owners,  among  them  Captain  David- 
son himself,  offered  to  sell  or  lease  their  vessels  to 
the  convention  members.  None  of  their  tenders  was 
accepted,  however,  and  the  organization  of  the 
cooperative  line  continued  apace.  Its  capital  stock 
was  set  at  $500,000,  and  a  large  committee  of  dele- 
gates was  appointed  to  solicit  subscriptions  among 
the  merchants  of  the  river  towns.  Eventually  an 
association  known  as  the  Minnesota  Transportation 
Company  was  incorporated  under  the  laws  of  Minne- 
sota, to  whose  stock  the  St.  Paul  Board  of  Trade 

1  St.  Paul  Weekly  Pioneer,  Jan.  12,  1866. 


ANTIMONOPOLY  REVOLT  327 

conditionally  subscribed  $50,000.^  In  the  end,  however, 
the  project  came  to  naught  because  of  the  inability  of 
the  committee  to  secure  sufficient  subscriptions. 

However,  the  railroad  and  the  steamboat  com- 
panies of  the  upper  valley  had  taken  alarm  at  these 
manifestations  of  public  resentment,  A  few  days 
before  the  assembling  of  the  St.  Paul  convention 
the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railway  and  the  Milwau- 
kee &  Prairie  du  Chien  promised,  in  public  letters, 
to  abandon  the  policy  of  a  "closed  river"  and  there- 
after accord  equal  terms  to  all  steamboats  irrespective 
of  ownership. 2  Freight  rates  likewise  came  tumbling 
down.  Notwithstanding  wheat  had  risen  in  value  26 
cents  per  bushel  between  April,  1865  and  April,  1866, 
the  steamboat  rate  for  transporting  it  from  Hudson 
to  La  Crosse  fell  from  15  to  4  cents  per  bushel,  and 
the  railroad  rate  between  La  Crosse  and  Milwaukee 
dropped  from  20  to  15  cents. ^ 

As  a  result  of  these  concessions  and  the  return  of 
prosperity  in  1866  the  antimonopoly  movement 
quietly  disintegrated.  Freight  rates  remained  com- 
paratively stationary  until  1868  when,  owing  to  the 
vigorous  competition  of  the  St.  Louis  market  and  a 
fall  in  the  value  of  gold,  they  steadily  declined.  In 
the  spring  of  1870  the  through  wheat  rate  from  upper 
river  towms  to  Milwaukee  was  18  cents;  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1871,  15  cents;  in  the  spring  of  1872,  12 
cents.'*    Rate  wars  again  made  their  appearance,  the 

1  Ibid.,  Mar.  2  and  9,  1866. 

^  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Feb.  6,  1866. 

3  Milwaukee  Daily  News,  IMar.29,1866.  During  the  summer  of  1866  as  a  re- 
sult of  steamboat  consolidations  the  steamboat  rate  again  advanced  to  7'cents. 

*Eau  Claire  Free  Press,  April  7,  1870;  Milwaukee  Daily  A^ews,  Aug.  4, 
1871;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  April  19,  1872. 


328  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Company  fighting  the  Illinois 
Central,  much  to  the  delight  of  the  river  shippers. 
Inland  towns  continued  to  complain  of  high  charges 
and  discriminations,  particularly  during  the  depres- 
sion of  1869,  yet  even  their  dissatisfaction  was 
scattering.  On  the  surface  it  seemed  that  the  anti- 
monopoly  revolt  had  passed  into  history  leaving 
behind  no  record  of  permanent  achievement. 

To  careful  observers,  however,  it  was  apparent 
that  this  popular  movement  had  profoundly  im- 
pressed the  region  west  of  Lake  Michigan.  Farmers 
and  merchants  had  been  confronted  with  the  start- 
ling realization  that  they  were  well  nigh  helpless  be- 
fore the  power  of  transportation  companies.  Jurists 
had  learned  that  existing  laws  offered  no  protection 
against  the  oppressions  of  public  carriers.  Legislators 
had  discovered  that  a  mighty  revolution  in  trans- 
portation had  been  suffered  to  take  place  during  the 
past  fifteen  years  without  having  received  recogni- 
tion on  the  statute  books.  Public  opinion  in  short 
had  been  prepared  to  receive  the  new  conception 
of  state  regulation  of  railroads. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  GENESIS   OF   RAILROAD   REGULATION    IN   THE 
UNITED  STATES 

For  a  number  of  years  after  the  upper  Mississippi 
River  had  lost  its  importance  as  an  independent 
thoroughfare  of  commerce  it  still  served  the  region 
west  of  Lake  Michigan  as  a  regulator  of  railroad 
rates.  Never  as  useful  in  this  respect  as  was  the  lake 
and  canal  route  to  the  region  east  of  Lake  Michigan/ 
it  was  yet  a  power  not  to  be  disregarded.  Whenever 
railroad  charges  became  unreasonable  shippers  sent 
their  products  by  steamboat  to  southern  markets, 
and  the  usual  result  of  such  competition  was  to 
restore  a  proper  balance. 

Even  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  how- 
ever, the  regulative  influence  of  the  river  was  on  the 
decline.  The  surplus  of  the  upper  valley  had  grown 
to  be  too  enormous  for  consumption  in  the  South, 
and  as  an  independent  route  to  the  sea  the  old  high- 
way was  out  of  the  question.  Suddenly  the  war  shut 
ofT  even  the  remnants  of  this  river  competition.  The 
farmers  living  west  of  Lake  Michigan  were  forced 
to  seek  their  markets  wholly  in  the  East.  During  the 
four  years  of  the  conflict  they  were  taught  to  depend 
upon  the  speed,  directness,  and  certainty  of  overland 
transportation,  and  when  the  river  was  reopened  to 
commerce  they  no  longer  cared  to  use  it. 

1  The  direction  of  the  Mississippi  River  was  contrary  to  the  general 
trend  of  northern  commerce.    See  post,  chap.  xiv. 

[329  1 


330  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

It  was  not  long,  however,  before  shippers  learned 
the  full  import  of  the  decadence  of  the  river  route. 
Freed  from  the  fear  of  water  competition,  railroad 
companies  no  longer  hesitated  to  be  arbitrary  and 
exacting.  Their  new  power  became  only  too  apparent 
during  the  closing  years  of  the  Civil  War.  Regretfully 
the  antimonopoly  reformers  attempted  to  reestablish 
the  old  equilibrium  by  improving  the  channel  of  the 
Mississippi,  by  removing  obstructions  from  its  bed, 
and  by  cutting  away  the  sand  bars  formed  at  its 
mouth.  To  every  section  of  the  river  valley  they 
carried  the  campaign  for  river  improvement,  and 
during  the  later  sixties  and  early  seventies  Congress 
never  heard  an  end  of  their  demands. 

The  more  farsighted  understood,  however,  that  the 
departed  power  of  the  Mississippi  could  never 
return.  They  realized  that  if  the  railroads  were  to  be 
curbed  at  all  the  restraining  power  must  be  found 
elsewhere.  The  program  which  they  suggested  was 
State  regulation,  and  in  the  antimonopoly  agitation 
they  first  prominently  urged  it  upon  the  public. 

Naturally  public  regulation  was  obnoxious  to  the 
railroad  companies.  They  protested  against  it  with 
all  their  powers  of  argument  and  persuasion.  Upon 
five  general  grounds  they  rested  their  case.^  They 
maintained  that  no  reasonable  cause  for  such  inter- 
ference existed,  that  it  would  be  dishonest  and  un- 
constitutional, that  it  would  render  them  unable  to 
compete  with  the  unhampered  companies  of  Illinois, 
that  it  would  drive  railroad  capital  from  the  State, 

1  This  account  is  compiled  from  a  wide  variety  of  sources,  but  chiefly 
from  speeches  delivered  in  the  legislature  and  elsewhere,  reports  of  legisla- 
tive committees,  and  newspaper  editorials. 


RAILROAD  REGULATION  331 

and  finally,  that  it  could  not  properly  be  undertaken 
by  any  governmental  authorities  because  of  lack 
of  knowledge  and  training. 

In  substantiation  of  their  first  argument  they 
earnestly  contended  that  their  freight  rates  were  just, 
even  though  apparently  high.  The  cost  of  building 
their  roads,  they  maintained,  had  been  unusually 
large,  due  to  the  fact  that  the  early  promoters  had 
been  inexperienced  in  the  art  of  railroad  construction 
and  that  investments  for  this  far-western  region  had 
been  procured  only  at  heavy  discounts  and  high  rates 
of  interest.  Their  costs  of  operation  were  likewise 
higher  than  in  the  East,  for  this  was  a  new  country, 
undeveloped  in  its  resources  and  unable  to  produce  a 
profitable  supply  of  traffic.  Under  such  circumstances 
the  freight  rates  which  they  demanded  were  if  any- 
thing still  inadequate.  Indeed,  the  net  earnings  of 
their  lines  were  scarely  ever  sufficient  to  pay  stock 
dividends  equal  to  the  interest  rates  ordinarily  ac- 
corded productive  capital.^ 

To  such  a  stand  the  reformers  replied  that  the 
high  cost  of  railroad  construction  in  Wisconsin  had 
not  been  due  so  much  to  inexperience  or  natural 
difficulties  as  to  fraudulent  financiering.  As  victims 
of  railroad  mortgages  and  local  bonds  they  could 
testify  only  too  intimately  to  this  fact.  Wholly  be- 
side the  point,  however,  was  any  argument  concern- 
ing the  original  cost  of  the  roads.  The  present  owners 
had  purchased  them  under  the  hammer  and  for  a 

i\Vis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1864,  717-36;  id.,  1867,  641-49;  Wis.  Sen.  Jour., 
1868,  280.  For  earnings  of  a  conservatively  managed  road  see  Milwaukee 
&.  Prairie  du  Chien  Railway  Company,  Reports,  1860-66;  S.  B.  How  v. 
Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  Railway,  Bill  of  Complaint,  in  U.  S. 
District  Court,  Milwaukee;  New  York  Times,  Nov.  6,  1865. 


332  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

mere  song  after  the  panic  of  1857.  The  only  real  losers 
by  the  forced  sales  had  been  the  small  stockholders, 
notably  the  railroad  mortgagors.  They  had  received 
short  shrift  in  the  devious  process  of  reorganization. 
If,  indeed,  the  roads  paid  meager  dividends,  this  was 
to  be  attributed  not  to  actual  high  costs  or  to  in- 
sufTicient  earnings  but  to  the  watering  of  capital 
stock,  fraudulent  management,  and  the  necessity  for 
regenerating  impaired  and  deteriorated  lines. 

The  historian  seeking  to  weigh  these  conflicting 
contentions  is  embarrassed  by  the  meagerness  of  the 
evidence  that  accompanies  them.  Railroad  managers 
whether  honest  or  dishonest  were  not  eager  to  admit 
the  public  into  their  confidence.  Only  on  rare  occa- 
sions did  information  of  a  trustworthy  character  fmd 
its  way  into  print.  No  doubt  the  gross  forms  of  high 
finance  prevalent  from  1850  to  1860  were  less  com- 
mon during  the  following  decade.  However,  it  is 
apparent  from  the  stray  scraps  of  data  that  have 
been  preserved  that  managers  and  directors  of 
Wisconsin  railroads  still  enriched  themselves  at  the 
expense  of  the  stockholders  and  the  public.  The 
investigations  instituted  by  the  Granger  reformers 
in  1873  show,  for  example,  that  of  the  several  rail- 
roads constructed  within  the  State  under  approxi- 
mately the  same  conditions,  some  had  cost  two 
or  even  three  times  as  much  per  mile  as  others.^ 
There  seems  little  room  for  disagreement  with  the 
conclusions  arrived  at  by  the  investigators  that  this 

1  Wis.  Railroad  Commissioner,  Report,  1874,  pt.  1,  51-56;  U.  S.  Internal 
Commerce,  Report,  1876,  pt.  2,  161-63;  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  Aug.  20 
to  Aug.  29,  1863;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Mar.  2,  1867;  Hartford  Home 
League,  Sept.  8,  1860  and  June  27,  1863;  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1864,  730. 


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LKCISLATI  Iti:  OF  THE  STATK  OF  WISCOXSIX. 


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-.    ■■!'    Wl-i  ..:i~.,,     I.,.,      ii. 
,  i   ill  f:irl  to  [wnili/j-  ill.lu- 

iil.l.    l,,.^i.     .  1 1.. 


.1  ilF:!  on  Ihi'  li'iil  Koiiils  throiij^h  the 
'iii.'ijji'  i<lii|iiii(<iit  ill  Ihiit  ilirit'tioii, 
A<-  an-  coiii|ii:lli'(l  to  usk  fiiini  yiiiii- 
-:    i.N,  ivlii.li   Hill  .HO  reiliio,.  friiphti- 
■';•''  liy.     \V>' Ihi'ivfon- ri-i|iif>t  that  you 

'  I    .1'   i:    III-  riimiii.i;  Ihroiijili  voiii-  Jitale  tliiit 

..ill  I..   i.,.,;,,,..i  ,m  'J I.  or  ■Jtnm  .■iliip|i,-.l  >,,  ,,i- (i..„, 

'-■'|nT;ili' u  itli  yoti  in  ani,  iiif;t*iuri*  tor  our  miMii;il  u'I"M  1 ,1 
si.'i  ].i  -]•■:  iv.  I,  .1,  M..._-  i  ,,:  ,;,,  i.>.,ri,-  ,l|.ri\i-.i  fr..in  tin-  lr.'in-|...i-l.ilioM  of  our  fiviulil  i-  ol 
-iilli.  iiiil  ion^i-.(n.  ii.t  I.,  mjh  :i-  «.  Ii  :i>  n-  t..  jii,tili  n-  in  iiii-.;iitin;i  our  wisijiu,  in  (bin  iiarticnlar. 
;.!  ■!  ii'i-^;:  -  ".:i  y    .    -i:;   ,1  v...;i  :•:.-.   ,1       .-;.-.    i.-,.il:U,.  I.v  la«  tli.^  trcixhts  ou  vour  KMiMd.i.U 

.  .    i;i-l.'ni   Mnrki-I   llin.n-l, 


I  III  »M  \~   II.  .Vl;\|STIU)N<.;. 

ri.-iil.-nt  of  tin-  S,n.,u- 

.1  ami;-  1;  \v.\Ki-:Kii;i.r' 


Jill    liuii.li 
1  Al.l.,    !.■ 


Ornct  OF  THE  SECRETARY  OF  STATE. 

1..  lira  tni.-  aii.l  .■oirm   .  n|,v  ,..  iL 


Witii.--  my   liaii.l   am!    tho   «:n-ii\   ^ca 

f.Miil..nlli  .lav  ..f  Maivh.  >.  n.  !■ 


A  MEMORIAL  URGING  RAILROAD  REGULATIONS 
Original  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Library 


RAILROAD  REGULATION  333 

was  the  result  chiefly  of  corrupt  financiering,  in  which 
the  railroad  officials  themselves  shared  the  profits. 

Exceptional  opportunities  for  stock  watering  and 
irregular  financing  were  presented  by  the  numerous 
railroad  consolidations  that  marked  the  decade  of 
the  sixties.  Stock  watering  was  carried  on  in  Wis- 
consin and  other  states  of  the  Union  so  freely  and 
openly  as  to  approach  respectability.  Of  more  direct 
dishonesty  there  were  also  a  number  of  instances. 
Roads  of  little  intrinsic  value  were  purchased  at  exces- 
sive prices  and  incorporated  into  consolidated  systems 
at  inflated  values,  those  privy  to  the  proceedings 
dividing  the  spoils.^  Even  when  consolidations  were 
undertaken  in  good  faith  they  invariably  resulted  in 
an  undue  increase  of  the  nominal  capital  upon  which 
dividends  had  to  be  paid. 

The  extent  and  the  character  of  such  maneuvering 
may  be  judged  from  a  few  well-substantiated  illus- 
trations. The  figures  which  they  involve  may  not  be 
impressive  to  the  present  generation,  but  for  their 
day  they  were  large.  In  1863  Russell  Sage,  Washing- 
ton Hunt,  and  others  purchased  the  Milwaukee  & 
Horicon  Railroad  under  foreclosure  proceedings  for 
$670,000.  A  few  weeks  later  it  was  placed  in  the 
Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  consolidation  on  a  stock-and- 
bond  basis  of  $1,050,000.2  When  the  Chicago  & 
Northwestern  Railway  Company  consolidated  with 
the  Galena  &  Chicago  Union  in  1864  the  latter  com- 

»  See  ante,  290,  note  1;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Mar.  4,  1867;  Portage 
Register,  Sept.  5,  1863;  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  Aug.  30,  1863.  See  also 
notes  on  consolidation. 

2  Portage  Register,  July  4  and  Sept.  5,  1863;  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis., 
Aug.  20,  1863;  Hartford  Home  League,  Nov.  15  and  Dec.  6,  1862.  See  also 
notes  on  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  consolidation. 


334  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

pany,  whose  total  stock  issues  amounted  to  but 
86,000,000,  was  credited  in  the  new  corporation  with 
312,000,000.  The  president  of  the  Chicago  &  North- 
western frankly  defended  the  increase  on  the  ground 
that  Northwestern  stock  had  been  so  diluted  prior  to 
1864  as  to  render  it  necessary  to  issue  the  additional 
$6,000,000  bonus  to  the  owners  of  the  Chicago  & 
Galena  Union  in  order  to  equalize  in  the  consolidation 
the  interests  of  the  two  sets  of  stockholders.^  In  the 
forced  absorption  of  the  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du 
Chien  Company,  there  was  involved  approximately 
S3, 000,000  of  common  stock.  A  few  days  prior  to  the 
Prairie  Dog  Corner  this  had  been  worth  but  70  cents 
on  the  dollar.  It  was  exchanged  by  the  Milwaukee  & 
St.  Paul  Company  for  $3,000,000  of  its  preferred  stock 
plus  a  $750,000  bonus  of  its  common  stock.  Almost 
without  exception  the  consolidations  of  this  period 
resulted  in  forcing  upon  the  public  enormous  issues 
of  securities  of  wholly  fictitious  value. ^ 

Faced  by  such  facts  the  conservative  Milwaukee 
Sentinel  laid  down  the  following  principle  of  railroad 
regulation  in  a  series  of  editorials  published  in  1866, 
containing  perhaps  the  ablest  discussion  of  this 
subject  written  in  the  State  at  that  time:  "The 
proposition  will  hardly  be  disputed  that  a  railroad 
company  should  have  the  right  to  maintain  such 
charges  upon  its  business  as  will  pay  a  net  profit  upon 
capital  prudently  and  economically  invested,  cor- 
responding to  the  average  net  profit  on  capital  other- 

1  New  York  Times,  June  4,  1864;  New  York  Tribune,  Mar.  20,  1865; 
Chicago  &  Northwestern  Railway  Company,  Report,  1865,  23-25.  See 
also  notes  on  Chicago  &  Northwestern  consolidation. 

2  Poor,  Manual  of  Railroads,  1868-69,  24,  30-31;  Wis.  Assem.  Jour., 
1864,  728-31. 


RAILROAD  REGULATION  335 

wise  employed.  The  public  is  not  bound  to  pay  this 
net  profit  on  the  whole  nominal  cost  of  the  road,  if 
one  half,  or  any  other  proportion  of  the  capital  has 
been  squandered  or  stolen  by  the  managers.  The 
company  cannot  justly  demand  the  usual  net  profit 
on  capital  for  stock  diluted  in  this  or  any  other  way, 
but  only  on  the  cash  cost  of  the  road,  economically 
and  faithfully  constructed."^  This  was  the  answer  of 
the  reformers  to  the  complaint  of  the  railroad  man- 
agers that  their  earnings  were  insufficient  to  pay 
proper  dividends  upon  capital  stock. 

The  second  ground  upon  which  railroad  repre- 
sentatives objected  to  State  regulation  was  its  un- 
constitutionality. They  maintained  that  the  State 
had  no  more  right  to  fix  transportation  charges  than 
to  fix  the  price  at  which  the  farmer  sold  his  grain  or 
the  merchant  his  wares.  Some  granted  the  legal 
right  of  the  State  but  asserted  that  regulation  would 
constitute  a  moral  violation  of  the  promises  made 
to  railroad  capital  in  the  original  liberal  railroad 
charters. 

The  reformers  in  reply  emphasized  the  quasi-public 
nature  of  the  railroad  industry,  as  recognized  by  the 
companies  themselves  when  they  accepted  land 
grants  and  exercised  the  rights  of  eminent  domain. 
They  insisted  that  the  enormous  power  of  the  rail- 
roads required  some  legislative  check,  some  means  of 
protection  to  the  public.  They  denied  that  regula- 
tion constituted  any  legal  or  moral  violation  of  the 
original  charters.  They  pointed  out  the  clause  in 
the  State  constitution  which  expressly  reserved  to 
the  legislature  the  privilege  of  altering  or  repealing 

1  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Feb.  22,  1866. 


336  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

the  franchise  of  any  company  incorporated  under 
the  laws  of  Wisconsin.^ 

The  third  contention  of  the  railroad  companies 
was  that  regulation  would  so  restrict  and  handicap 
their  powers  that  they  would  be  unable  to  compete 
successfully  with  the  unhampered  lines  of  Illinois. 
In  particular  they  would  be  forced  to  surrender  the 
important  through  freights  moving  between  the 
Mississippi  River  and  the  lake  shore.  They  would 
inevitably  be  ruined  and  in  their  downfall  would 
drag  with  them  the  flourishing  towns  and  cities  that 
had  grown  up  about  this  trade. 

Even  more  persuasive  was  the  argument  that  regu- 
lation would  frighten  railroad  capital  from  the  State. 
No  capitalist,  the  railroad  representatives  declared, 
would  think  of  investing  his  money  in  Wisconsin 
when  once  it  was  shown  that  the  State  legislature 
had  violated  the  solemn  contracts  entered  into  with 
the  companies  in  the  original  charters.  Even  under 
the  best  of  conditions  the  Badger  State  found  it 
diflficult  to  attract  railroad  investors  in  competition 
with  its  western  neighbors.  Obviously  a  policy  of 
restricting  and  harassing  transportation  companies 
could  result  only  in  increasing  the  handicap  and 
perhaps  halting  entirely  the  railroad  development  of 
Wisconsin. 2 

Such  an  argument  appealed  powerfully  to  every 
locality  eager  to  secure  railroad  connections,  and  in 
particular  to  the  northern  half  of  the  State.     Here 

'  Wisconsin  Constitution,  art.  XI,  sec.  1.  See  address  of  M.  H.  Carpenter 
in  Wis.  Agric.  Soc,  Trans.,  1869, 138-50;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Mar.  21, 1866. 

2  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1864,  717-36;  Wis.  Sen.  Jour.,  1867,  643-45;  id., 
1868,  280;  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Mar.  14  and  24,  1864;  Milwaukee  Sentinel, 
Mar.  20, 1866  and  Mar.  4, 1867;  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  April  10  and  26. 1867. 


RAILROAD  REGULATION  337 

the  agitation  for  rate  regulation  was  looked  upon 
as  "a  dishonest  political  hobby-horse  ridden  by  popu- 
larity-seeking demagogues."  "These  tariff  agitators 
know  full  well  the  disastrous  consequences  that 
would  follow  the  success  of  such  a  bill,  in  the  way  of 
discouragement  to  railroad  enterprise,  thus  subject- 
ing the  [northjwestern  portion  of  the  State  for  years 
to  the  inconvenience  of  stage  coach  travel  and  trans- 
portation of  freight  by  wagon. "^ 

Spurning  the  policy  of  regulation  the  northern  por- 
tion of  Wisconsin  demanded  only  further  encourage- 
ment to  railroad  investors.  Not  by  restriction  but 
by  stimulation  of  construction  was  the  danger  of 
railroad  extortion  to  be  met.  New  railroads  would 
increase  competition,  which  by  natural  laws  would 
reduce  rates  to  a  reasonable  level. ^ 

In  these  opposing  methods  of  dealing  with  the 
same  problem  we  have  an  interesting  study  in  public 
psychology.  One  region,  possessing  no  railroads, 
associated  with  them  only  the  blessings  of  quick  and 
easy  transportation.  The  other,  to  whom  these 
blessings  had  become  a  matter  of  course,  thought 
only  of  high  charges  and  inadequate  service.  So  long 
as  a  large  portion  of  the  State  remained  without  rail- 
road facilities  these  conflicting  points  of  view  neutral- 
ized each  other  and  the  transportation  companies 
were  comparatively  safe  from  interference.  When, 
however,  railroads  had  penetrated  with  some  degree 
of  uniformity  all  the  settled  portions  of  Wisconsin 
grievances  came  to  a  majority,  and  in  the  legislation 
of  the  Granger  period  they  gained  expression. 

'  Eau  Claire  Free  Press,  June  13,  1867. 
2  Ibid.;  W'is.  Sen.  Jour.,  1869,  276-85. 

22 


338  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Undoubtedly  the  most  cogent  argument  advanced 
against  rate  regulation  was  that  State  authorities 
possessed  no  adequate  basis  of  information  upon 
which  to  undertake  so  difficult  a  task.^  This  was  an 
objection  not  easy  to  answer.  In  Wisconsin  as  well 
as  elsewhere  in  the  country  the  only  persons  who 
knew  anything  of  the  technique  of  railroad  adminis- 
tration were  those  in  the  employ  of  the  carrying 
companies.  Overland  rail  transportation  was  too 
recent  a  development  in  America  to  be  fully  under- 
stood in  its  manifold  implications.  The  railroad 
managers  themselves  knew  but  little  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  rate  making.  They  frankly  fixed 
all  their  noncompetitive  charges  upon  a  rough  basis 
of  what  the  traffic  would  bear. 

In  the  simply  organized  agricultural  state  of  Wis- 
consin rate  making,  it  is  true,  was  not  the  intricate 
problem  that  it  is  today.  It  required,  however,  a 
special  knowledge  and  training  which  public  officials 
did  not  possess.  In  view  of  this  obstacle  it  is  fortu- 
nate that  the  efforts  to  enact  regulatory  legislation 
from  1864  to  1870  failed.  It  was  upon  this  rock  that 
the  Granger  laws  were  wrecked  a  few  years  later. 

The  railroad  reformers  averred  that  other  than 
legitimate  arguments  were  used  to  defeat  regulation. 
It  was  impossible  for  them  to  substantiate  their 
allegations,  and  it  is  probable  little  direct  corruption 
existed.  However,  it  was  painfully  apparent  that  the 
atmosphere  which  surrounded  railroad  legislation  was 
far  from  ideal. ^   It  prompted  one  disgusted  assembly- 

iPoor,  Manual  of  Railroads,  1868-69,  31;  id.,  1870-71,  p.  xxxiii;  id., 
1871-72,  p.  xxxi;  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Jan.  4,  1866;  Milwaukee  Sentinel, 
Mar.  20  and  21,  1866. 

2  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Mar.  29  and  April  1,  1864;  Madison  Patriot,  June 


RAILROAD  REGULATION  339 

man  in  1864  to  propose  the  following  resolution: 
"That  the  Sergeant  at  Arms  of  this  House  be  directed 
to  furnish  the  Railroad  Lobby  Agents  that  now  infest 
this  chamber,  with  a  room,  and  the  necessary  liquid 
comforts,  in  the  basement  of  the  Capitol,  where  they 
can  carry  on  their  log  rolling  without  annoyance  to 
the  proceedings  of  this  body."^  In  discussing  the 
regulation  bills  of  1866  the  Janesville  Gazette,  an  ad- 
ministration paper,  gave  somewhat  homely  expres- 
sion to  a  belief  commonly  entertained  in  Wisconsin: 
"A  wet  rag  about  a  washerwoman's  thumb  is  not 

21,  1862;  Waukesha  County  Democrat,  Mar.  1,  1864;  Milwaukee  Daily 
News,  Feb.  9,  1866;  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1864,  563;  id.,  1866,  123;  Wis. 
Sen.  Jour.,  1866,  782,  867;  id.,  1867,  765;  and  Stephenson,  Recollections, 
193.  The  following  account,  published  in  Wis.  State  Jour.,  April  1,  1864, 
may  be  cited  as  an  illustration.  It  occurred  in  the  Assembly  in  1864  while 
the  important  railroad  regulation  bill  of  that  session  was  under  considera- 
tion. It  was  permitted  to  go  by  without  creating  even  a  demand  for  an 
investigation. 

"After  some  further  discussion  Mr.  McGarry  asked  leave  to  read  a 
letter  showing  how  the  railroad  operators  and  speculators  influence  the 
legislature. 

"Cries  of  'read'  'object'  etc. 

"Mr.  Geo.  B.  Smith  (speaker)  said  he  had  no  objection  to  the  reading 
of  the  letter.  He  knew  what  it  was.  It  was  a  year  old  and  did  not  relate  to 
this  House  at  all. 

"Mr.  McGarry  began  reading  the  letter,  saying  that  he  would  omit 
names. 

"Cries  of  'names'  'read  the  names,'  and  great  confusion  and  excitement 
on  the  floor. 

"Mr.  McGarry  continued  reading  the  letter  and  omitting  the  names. 
It  seemed  to  have  been  written  from  New  York  by  some  railroad  man, 
either  to  a  member  of  the  legislature  or  'lobby  member,'  urging  the  impor- 
tance of  securing  the  passage  of  some  measure  on  the  subject  of  mortgages 
to  railroads.  The  writer  said  the  passage  of  the  bill  would  be  worth  $5,000 
'to  us,'  and  that  that  amount  would  be  paid  to  the  order  of  the  recipient 
of  the  letter  if  he  got  the  bill  through.  It  mentioned  certain  other  gentle- 
men who  would  aid  in  getting  it  passed,  but  who  knew  nothing  of  the 
$5,000,  that  being  'between  us.'  The  letter  closed  with  the  vigorous  in- 
junction: 'Yoke  up  the  forty  bullocks  and  put  it  (the  bill)  through.'  " 

1  Wis.  Assem.  Jour.,  1864,  563. 


340  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

more  pliable  than  some  of  our  Wisconsin  solons  are 
in  the  hands  of  these  shrewd  and  skillful  lobbymen."^ 

The  custom  of  issuing  free  railroad  passes  to  mem- 
bers of  the  legislature  was  the  subject  of  numerous 
though  unsustained  complaints.  Public  opinion  on 
the  whole  condoned  the  practice  as  it  condoned  others 
that  would  not  be  tolerated  now.  The  legislative 
and  business  methods  of  Wisconsin  were,  it  must  be 
remembered,  the  methods  of  a  period  whose  ethical 
standards  were  far  different  from  our  own.  The 
Milwaukee  Sentinel  probably  honestly  reflected  public 
sentiment  at  this  time  when  in  a  caustic  editorial 
upon  the  action  of  an  assemblyman  who  had  attracted 
notice  by  rejecting  a  railroad  pass  it  declared  that 
free  passes  were  merely  "an  act  of  good  fellowship 
on  the  part  of  the  companies."  "We  are  not  among 
those  who  believe  that  Wisconsin  legislators  are  so 
cheap  that  a  pass  will  buy  them.  If  that  were  so, 
would  it  not  be  questionable  whether  such  cheap 
trash  was  worth  purchasing  at  all?"^ 

By  one  means  or  another  the  railroad  companies 
succeeded  in  defeating  every  effort  that  was  made  to 
regulate  their  conduct.  As  early  as  1860  a  bill  to 
establish  their  charges  was  introduced  in  the  legis- 
lature,^ which  they  brushed  aside  with  contemptuous 
ease.  They  granted  the  same  scant  consideration  to 
other  sporadic  efforts  of  this  kind  during  the  early 
years  of  the  Civil  War. 

1  Janesville  Gazette,  Jan.  5,  1866. 

2  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  28,  1871. 

'  Similar  measures  were  at  this  time  before  the  legislatures  of  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio.  See  ibid.,  Feb.  21,  1860;  Milwaukee 
Daily  News,  Mar.  28,  1866;  Wis.  Farmer,  April  1,  1860;  Fite,  Social  and 
Industrial  Conditions,  161. 


RAILROAD  REGULATION  341 

In  the  legislative  session  of  1864,  however,  a  rate 
regulation  measure,  known  as  Assembly  Bill  No.  298, 
was  the  most  urgent  domestic  question  under  con- 
sideration. The  State  was  thoroughly  aroused  against 
the  railroads,  and  memorials  from  all  quarters  de- 
manding the  passage  of  the  bill  poured  in  upon  the 
lawmakers.  More  petitions  on  this  subject  found  their 
way  to  the  capitol  in  1864  than  had  been  presented 
on  any  other  subject  for  years.  "No  measure," 
declared  the  Wisconsin  State  Journal  on  Mar.  15, 
1864,  "has  ever  been  so  universally  demanded  by  the 
people." 

The  bill  thus  popular  in  Wisconsin  was  very 
sweeping  in  character.  It  proposed  to  divide  freight 
into  sixteen  classes,  enumerating  the  several  articles 
to  be  included  in  each  and  the  rate  which  each  should 
bear.  It  forbade  preferences  of  any  kind  in  trans- 
porting the  several  classes,  and  in  particular  required 
the  railroads  to  carry  wood  by  the  carload  with 
reasonable  dispatch.  Passengers  traveling  first-class 
were  to  be  charged  not  exceeding  3  cents  per  mile, 
those  journeying  second-class,  not  exceeding  2  cents 
per  mile.  State  ofRcers,  judges,  and  members  of  the 
legislature  were  to  be  carried  without  charge.  Any 
corporation  that  deliberately  violated  the  law  was 
at  once  to  forfeit  its  charter.^ 

The  railroad  interests  of  Wisconsin  arrayed  against 
this  measure  the  most  formidable  lobby  that  the 
legislature  had  seen  since  the  land-grant  days  of 
1856.  Before  many  weeks  they  had  succeeded  in 
amending  the  bill  to  death.    In  the  form  in  which  it 

1  La  Crosse  Democrat,  Mar.  15,  1864.    For  two  instructive  committee 
reports  on  this  bill  see  Wis.  Assent.  Jour.,  1864,  717-36. 


342  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

eventually  passed  it  contained  but  two  provisions, 
one  of  which  prohibited  railroad  agents  from  trans- 
porting produce  or  lumber  over  roads  with  which  they 
were  officially  connected,  and  the  other  authorized 
transportation  companies  to  refuse  to  carry  wood 
during  their  busy  shipping  seasons.^ 

At  every  subsequent  legislative  session  until  1874 
one  or  more  measures  to  regulate  railroad  charges 
and  service  were  up  for  consideration.  Thirteen  such 
bills  were  before  the  lawmakers  in  1865,  eight  in 
1866,  seven  in  1867.^  Some  of  these  were  crude  maxi- 
mum rate  bills,  which  like  the  measure  of  1864  at- 
tempted to  fix  rigid  schedules  of  charges  and  service. 
Others  were  carefully  thought  out  and  elaborately 
framed  plans  for  regulatory  commissions,  which  would 
be  regarded  as  creditable  even  by  the  present  genera- 
tion. A  number  contemplated  commissions  with 
power  merely  to  enforce  the  rates  and  regulations  im- 
posed by  the  legislature;  others  had  in  view  boards 
with  wide  discretionary  powers;  still  others,  intended 
authorities  with  but  advisory  and  supervisory  powers. 
None  had  any  chance  for  passage.  Wisconsin  legis- 
latures were  too  completely  dominated  by  railroad 
influences  to  admit  of  the  acceptance  of  any  substan- 
tial reform  of  this  kind. 

The  antimonopoly  uprising  thus  failed  entirely 
to  impress  itself  upon  the  statute  books  of  Wisconsin. 
It  made  contributions  of  extreme  importance,  how- 
ever, to  popular  and  legislative  knowledge.  It 
familiarized  the  people  of  the  State  on  the  one  hand 

»  W^is.  Gen.  Laws,  1864,  chap.  482. 

^  See  Wis.  Assem.  Jour,  and  Wis.  Sen.  Jour,  for  the  years  1865,  1866, 
and  1867.  The  legislature  of  Minnesota  requested  such  legislation  of 
Wisconsin  in  1866. 


RAILROAD  REGULATION  343 

with  the  idea  of  public  regulation.  On  the  other  it 
afforded  an  opportunity  for  the  gradual  development 
of  the  methods  by  which  regulation  could  best  be 
accomplished.  It  foreshadowed,  while  it  prepared 
the  way  for,  the  Granger  legislation  of  1873. 

Today  one  of  the  marked  tendencies  of  American 
industrial  life  is  the  extension  of  government  control 
over  the  service  and  charges  of  public  carriers.  To 
the  antimonopoly  revolt  belongs  the  distinction  of 
having  for  the  first  time  turned  public  opinion  in 
this  direction. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

COMMERCE  OF  THE  UPPER  MISSISSIPPI 

Wisconsin  possessed  unusual  natural  advantages 
for  the  conduct  of  a  profitable  inland  commerce.  On 
three  sides  her  shores  were  washed  by  the  greatest 
inland  watercourses  on  the  North  American  conti- 
nent. On  her  western  border  flowed  the  Mississippi 
River,  pouring  into  her  lap  the  products  of  Minnesota 
and  northern  Iowa  and  affording  the  products  of 
her  own  western  counties  an  exit  to  market;  on  her 
eastern  boundary  the  broad  waters  of  Lake  Michigan 
offered  her  easy  access  to  the  sea;  on  her  northern 
shore  rolled  Lake  Superior,  the  largest  of  all  the 
northern  chain  of  fresh-water  lakes.  These  magni- 
ficent highways  supported  an  internal  commerce, 
unparalleled  in  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  to  it 
Wisconsin  contributed  an  important  part. 

The  conditions  of  navigation  on  the  Mississippi 
River  differed  widely  from  those  on  the  Great  Lakes. ^ 
The  upper  Mississippi  in  frequent  stretches  is  but 

^  No  adequate  study  has  yet  been  made  of  the  steamboat  commerce  of 
the  Mississippi  River.  The  best  works  thus  far  published  are  biographical 
in  nature,  those  of  George  B.  Merrick,  a  former  river  pilot,  being  especially 
useful.  See  G.  B.  Merrick,  Old  Times  on  the  Upper  Mississippi  (Cleveland, 
1909),  "Western  River  Steamboating,"  in  Wis.  Hist.  Soc,  Proc,  1911, 
97-148;  and  "Joseph  Reynolds  and  the  Diamond  Jo  Line  Steamers,  1862- 
1911,"  in  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Association,  Proceedings,  1915, 
217-61;  George  Gale,  Upper  Mississippi  (Chicago,  1867),  388-414;  E.  W. 
Gould,  Fifty  Years  on  the  Mississippi  (St.  Louis,  1889);  S.  L.  Clemens, 
Life  on  the  Mississippi  (New  York,  n.  d.).  For  the  best  contemporary 
source  see  the  annual  reviews  of  steamboat  trade  on  the  upper  river  printed 
at  or  near  the  close  of  each  shipping  season  in  the  St.  Paul  papers. 

[344  1 


MISSISSIPPI  RIVER  COMMERCE  345 

a  few  feet  deep;  it  fluctuates  greatly  from  season  to 
season;  and  above  Keokuk  in  our  period  it  was 
impeded  by  a  chain  of  rapids  thirty  miles  in  length. 
The  Great  Lakes,  on  the  other  hand,  offered  to 
commerce  almost  the  same  facilities  as  were  to  be 
found  on  the  ocean.  The  vessels  employed  on  the 
two  water  systems  naturally  reflected  these  differ- 
ences. The  lake  vessels  were  of  the  familiar  type 
employed  on  the  sea;  the  river  steamboats  on  the 
contrary  were  of  a  genus  known  only  to  river  navigation. 

Mississippi  River  steamboats  represented  a  com- 
paratively recent  development  in  boat  building,  the 
first  having  been  constructed  but  fifty  years  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  They  were  of  two 
kinds,  sidewheelers  and  sternwheelers,  the  former  being 
the  newer  and  more  popular  type  on  the  upper  river. 
Both  types  were  light  of  draught,  of  great  speed  and 
good  carrying  capacity,  and  were  excellently  adapted  to 
the  requirements  of  the  commerce  in  which  they  were 
engaged.^  Steamboat  men  on  the  upper  river  proudly 
boasted  that  their  vessels  "could  float  on  a  heavy  dew." 

Usually  they  were  arranged  for  both  passenger  and 
freight  service.  The  transportation  of  passengers, 
particularly  immigrants  bound  for  Iowa,  Minnesota, 
and  western  Wisconsin,  constituted  during  the  fifties 
and  sixties  one  of  their  largest  and  surest  sources 
of  profit.  Immigrants  as  a  rule  contented  themselves 
with  the  cheap  deck  passage,  but  for  those  who 
could  afford  better  accommodations  there  were  cabins 
comfortably  and  often  elegantly  fitted  out.  The 
better-class  packets  were  referred  to  in  the  newspaper 
notices  of  the  day  as  "floating  palaces"  and  such  in 

1  Wis.  Hist.  Soc,  Proc,  1911,  96-148. 


346  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

fact  some  of  them  were.  To  the  simple  westerner, 
accustomed  to  the  rude  life  of  the  frontier,  they 
represented  the  height  of  magnificence  and  in  partic- 
ular their  sumptuous  bills  of  fare  filled  him  with 
delighted  amazement. 

There  was  a  picturesqueness  about  steamboating 
on  the  Mississippi  that  was  less  pronounced  in  the 
more  important  commerce  of  the  Great  Lakes.  One 
feature  of  it  which  particularly  caught  the  public 
eye  was  the  occasional  racing  between  rival  vessels. 
Speed  was  a  prime  requisite  for  any  successful 
passenger  packet,  and  river  captains  were  under  con- 
stant temptation  to  establish  new  records  or  "show 
their  heels"  to  a  competitor  when  the  river  was  at 
a  good  stage  and  freight  was  meager.  On  the  lower 
river  such  contests  were  scheduled  and  carefully 
prepared  for,  but  on  the  upper  river  they  were  as  a 
rule  impromptu  "scrub  races,"  as  the  steamboat 
men  called  them.  Often  in  the  excitement  of  a 
close  match  safety  valves  were  tied  down  and  boilers 
recklessly  crowded  with  dried  pine,  rosin,  and  other 
highly  inflammable  materials.  Many  boats  constantly 
carried  with  them  barrels  of  rosin  for  no  other  pur- 
pose than  that  of  producing  high  steam  pressure  in 
an  emergency.  Now  and  then  as  the  result  of  such 
encounters  boilers  exploded  or  red-hot  smokestacks 
set  boats  afire,  and  the  most  painful  catastrophes 
followed.  This  was  the  case  with  the  steamboat 
"John  Rumsey,"  destroyed  near  St.  Paul  in  the  fall 
of  1864,  her  engineers  having  in  the  course  of  a  race 
forced  her  boilers  until  they  burst. ^ 

'  G.  B.  Merrick,  "Steamboats  and  Steamboatmen  of  the  Upper  Missis- 
sippi," in  Burlington  Sat.  Evening  Post,  Oct.  11,  1913. 


MISSISSIPPI  RIVER  COMMERCE  347 

The  difTiculties  of  river  navigation  produced  along 
the  Mississippi  an  interesting  social  class  known  as 
steamboat  pilots.  These  men  possessed  a  minute 
knowledge  of  the  river — its  twists  and  bends,  the 
vagaries  of  its  current,  and  the  location  of  its  unseen 
snags  and  rocks.  Their  skill  at  the  wheel  was  prover- 
bial, as  was  their  courage  and  presence  of  mind  in  a 
crisis.  Their  long  period  of  apprenticeship  and  the 
heavy  responsibility  resting  upon  them  gave  them 
standing  and  power  among  the  rivermen.  This  they 
increased  during  the  fifties  by  an  effective  organiza- 
tion known  as  the  Pilots'  Benevolent  Association.' 
Their  wages  were  often  higher  than  those  of  the  cap- 
tains under  whom  they  served,  reaching  their  maxi- 
mum just  prior  to  the  Civil  War,  when  first-class  men 
received  from  $500  to  $600  per  month,  and  a  number 
of  the  best  "lightning  pilots"  running  between  St. 
Paul  and  St.  Louis  were  paid  as  high  as  $800  or  $900 
per  month. 2 

The  Civil  War  destroyed  their  strong  organization 
and  loosened  their  hold  upon  the  river  trafhc.  The 
derangement  of  the  commerce  of  the  lower  river 
threw  hundreds  of  them  out  of  employment  with  the 
result  that  the  wages  of  all  came  tumbhng  down.^ 
Even  more  damaging  to  them  than  the  war  were  the 
economic  changes  of  the  later  fifties,  sixties,  and 
seventies,  which  not  only  ruined  their  profession  but 
altered  and  eventually  destroyed  the  river  commerce 
itself. 

^  Clemens,  Life  on  the  Mississippi,  127-40. 

Ubid.;  Merrick,  Old  Times,  163. 

3  During  the  season  of  1867  pilots  employed  by  the  Northwestern 
Union  Packet  Company  received  $250  per  month.  La  Crosse  Republican, 
Dec.  18,  1867. 


348  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

The  lucrativeness  of  upper  Mississippi  steam- 
boating  during  the  fifties  and  sixties  was  astonishing. 
This  was  the  golden  era  of  the  river  trade,  when  settle- 
ment was  rushing  into  Minnesota,  Iowa,  and  western 
Wisconsin.  Passenger  and  freight  rates  were  high, 
and  the  steamboats  were  busy  with  cargoes,  coming 
and  going,  from  the  opening  of  navigation  to  its  close. 
On  the  up-trip  they  carried  eager  crowds  of  immi- 
grants and  loads  of  supplies  from  the  great  whole- 
sale entrepots  of  the  lower  river.  On  the  down-trip 
they  were  laden  to  their  capacity  with  wheat  and 
other  agricultural  products.  Their  gains  from  a  single 
round  trip  were  sometimes  sufTicient  to  pay  half  the 
cost  of  a  new  boat. 

The  net  profits  of  the  La  Crosse  &  St.  Paul  Packet 
Company,  one  of  the  most  prominent  companies  on 
the  upper  river,  were,  according  to  its  secretary, 
a  trifle  over  $249,000  for  the  season  of  1865.  "This 
above  all  expenses,"  observes  the  La  Crosse  Democrat, 
"makes  quite  a  fine  showing,  being  in  excess  of  the 
entire  capital  stock  of  the  company."^  In  individual 
cases  the  gains  were  even  higher.  Thus  the  "Bur- 
lington," the  smallest  sidewheeler  of  the  Northern 
Line  Packet  Company,  representing  an  investment 
of  $30,000  at  the  utmost,  earned  in  the  season  of  1866 
a  net  income  of  $70,000. ^  Boats  in  regular  lines, 
particularly  if  they  enjoyed  railroad  connections, 
ordinarily  won  greater  profits  than  the  "outside" 
or  "wild"  boats,  yet  even  the  latter  flourished  during 
the  years  between  1850  and  1870. 

During  the  early  years  of  the   Civil   War  there 

'  La  Crosse  Democrat,  Jan.  29,  1866. 

2  Burlington  Sat.  Evening  Post,  Feb.  7,  1914. 


MISSISSIPPI  RIVER  COMMERCE  349 

appeared  on  the  upper  river  a  more  important  im- 
provement than  it  had  seen  in  several  decades.    This 
was  the  introduction  of  grain  barges,  designed  chiefly 
for  the  carrying  of  wheat  but  capable,  also,  of  trans- 
porting other  bulky  commodities.    No  more  econom- 
ical freight  carriers  than  these  have  ever  been  de- 
vised on  the  upper  river.    They  required  but  a  small 
investment  of  capital,   for  they  were  merely  great 
wooden  hulks.     They  were  economical  of  operation 
for,   being  towed  by  the  regular  steamboats,   they 
required  no  crew.     They  were  light  of  draught  for 
they  were  unencumbered  with  machinery  or  cabin 
accommodations.    They  possessed  carrying  capacities 
often  as  great  as  those  of  the  steamboats  that  towed 
them.i      Though   they   slackened   the   speed   of   the 
packets,  they  compensated  for  this  to  some  extent 
by  decreasing  the  delays  of  loading  and  unloading. 
A  vessel  merely  left  its  empty  grain  barges  at  the 
desired   shipping  point  on  the  up-trip    and    picked 
them  up  loaded  on  the  return. 

This  improvement  was  the  result  to  a  large  extent 
of  changing  conditions  along  the  upper  river.  By  1860 
Minnesota  and  northwestern  Wisconsin  had  com- 
pletely outgrown  the  carrying  capacity  of  their 
steamboat  service.  They  needed  not  only  greater 
but  cheaper  transportation,  particularly  for  their 
surplus  grain  and  this,  barges  alone  could  provide 
them.  "What  would  some  of  the  Erie  Canal  'skiff' 
owners  say,"  boasted  the  La  Crosse  Democrat  in  the 
spring  of  1864,  "to  see  one  of  our  steamers  ploughing 
her  way  to  market  with  fifteen  thousand  bushels  of 

^  Steamboats  of  the  first  class  plying  the  river  above  Dubuque  were 
usually  not  much  over  250  or  350  tons  burden. 


350  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

wheat  on  her  decks,  and  from  one  to  three  barges  in 
tow,  each  loaded  with  from  ten  to  fourteen  thousand 
bushels  of  wheat. "^  The  steamboat  "Ocean  Wave" 
in  the  spring  of  1866  took  to  market  on  a  single  trip 
with  the  aid  of  her  barges  a  load  of  61,395  bushels  of 
grain,  the  largest  cargo  it  was  said  that  up  to  that 
time  had  ever  been  taken  down  the  river. ^ 

The  number  of  grain  barges  thus  employed  mul- 
tiplied with  astonishing  rapidity  during  the  decade 
of  the  sixties.  The  increase  was  particularly  notice- 
able during  the  years  1863  and  1864  when,  owing  to 
the  unprecedentedly  low  stage  of  water  in  the  Missis- 
sippi, it  was  difficult  for  the  larger  steamboats  to 
navigate  the  upper  reaches  of  the  river.  By  the  close 
of  1866  a  single  great  packet  company  operating 
between  Dubuque  and  St.  Paul  possessed  more  than 
a  hundred  of  the  new  carriers,  the  total  grain  capacity 
of  which  was  325,000  bushels.^  In  the  trade  of  St. 
Paul  in  1866  were  over  180,  the  total  tonnage  of  which 
was  three  times  as  great  as  the  volume  of  all  the 
steamboats  entering  that  port.* 

The  economies  of  the  new  system  were  extended  by 
other  improvements  during  the  early  sixties.  Origi- 
nally it  was  the  custom  for  the  barges  to  carry  wheat 
in  two-bushel  bags,  an  expensive  practice  that  held 
over  from  the  days  when  grain  was  carried  only  upon 
the  decks  and  in  the  holds  of  the  packet  boats.  Dur- 
ing the  early  sixties  the   construction  of  improved 

1  La  Crosse  Democrat,  May  5,  1864. 

2  Prescott  Journal,  May  19,  1866. 

3  St.  Paul  Weekly  Pioneer,  Dec.  21,  1866.  The  same  article  contains 
an  excellent  summary  of  the  commerce  of  the  upper  river  for  the  year 
1866. 

*  Ibid. 


MISSISSIPPI  RIVER  COMMERCE  351 

elevators  at  the  river-shipping  centers^  rendered 
possible  the  far  cheaper  method  of  shipping  grain 
in  bulk. 2  At  the  same  time  another  change  crept  in. 
Towing  by  the  regular  steamboats  was  found  to  be 
too  expensive,  and  small  but  powerful  craft,  especially 
built  for  this  purpose,  came  into  use.  The  latter  were 
light  of  draught,  so  that  they  could  penetrate  with 
their  barges  to  the  uppermost  reaches  of  the  Missis- 
sippi or  its  tributaries.  They  were  comparatively 
cheap  of  construction  as  well  as  inexpensive  of 
operation,  for  they  were  small  and  able  to  dispense 
with  costly  crews.  They  could,  despite  their  dimin- 
utive size,  haul  down  the  river  surprising  quantities 
of  grain. ^ 

Originally  these  towboats  contented  themselves 
with  taking  to  market  three  or  four  barges  at  a  time. 
Soon,  however,  competition  forced  them  to  accept 
seven  or  eight,  or  even  more.  In  the  early  seventies 
it  was  not  unusual  for  one  of  the  powerful  craft  of 
the  "Diamond  Jo"  line  to  take  to  market  at  one 
trip  a  fleet  of  barges  carrying  100,000  bushels  of 
grain.*  We  have  already  seen  in  a  previous  chapter 
how  tow-boats  at  this  time  assumed  the  function  of 
hauling  rafts  of  pine  to  market.  Puffmg  their  vigorous 
way  through  placid  waters,  with  huge  lumber  hulks 
or  grain  barges  at  their  front  or  sides,  they  repre- 
sented the  new  order  of  events  on  the  Mississippi 
River. 

^  See  post,  chap.  xv. 

2  Owing  to  the  necessity  of  lightering  at  the  Keokuk  rapids  grain  de- 
scending the  river  to  St.  Louis  was  carried  in  bags  as  late  as  the  seventies. 

3  St.  Paul  Weekly  Pioneer,  Dec.  21,  1866;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  May  25. 
1864;  New  York  Produce  Exchange,  Report,  1872-73,  250-52. 

^  Miss.  Vallev  Hist.  Assn.,  Proc,  1915,  227-28. 


352  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

In  the  meantime  the  number  of  steamboats  in 
service  slowly  but  steadily  declined.  In  1857  ap- 
proximately one  hundred  such  vessels  ran  into  St. 
Paul;  in  1866,  not  more  than  sixty-three;  in  1876, 
scarcely  a  dozen. ^  In  1857  the  number  of  arrivals  at 
St.  Paul  was  1,025;  in  1866  it  had  fallen  to  777;  in 
1874  it  was  only  218. ^  As  sure  and  as  striking  as  had 
been  the  rise  of  the  barge  trade  of  the  upper  Missis- 
sippi was  this  decline  in  the  packet  trade.  The  stately 
steamboats,  once  the  pride  of  the  entire  valley,  had 
been  supplanted  by  the  noisy  towboats  with  consorts 
of  clumsy  barges. 

Concentration  of  ownership  was  a  marked  char- 
acteristic of  the  packet  industry  of  the  upper  Missis- 
sippi during  the  sixties  and  seventies.  As  in  the  case 
of  railroads,  this  was  an  outgrowth  of  unregulated 
competition.  It  was  not  so  much,  however,  competi- 
tion between  river  carriers  themselves,  as  that  offered 
by  overland  transportation.  Indeed,  it  was  only  after 
the  railroads  had  well  started  the  decline  of  the  com- 
merce of  the  upper  river  that  the  greatest  combina- 
tions of  steamboat  capital  made  their  appearance. 

In  1860  concentration  was  already  well  under  way. 
At  that  time  there  were  in  the  service  in  Wisconsin, 
Minnesota,  and  Iowa  two  prominent  packet  compa- 
nies maintaining  regular  lines,  and  a  few  unimportant 
"outside"  steamboats.  The  former  possessed  a 
decided  advantage  over  the  latter  in  that  they  were 
able,  by  virtue  of  their  regular  service,  to  monopolize 
the  jobbing  and  railroad  trade  of  the  great  wholesale 
entrepots  on  the  river. 

1  Merrick,  Old  Times,  83;  St.  Paul  Weekly  Pioneer,  Dec.  21,  1866. 

2  U.  S.  Internal  Commerce,  Report,  1876,  pt.  2,  app.,  188. 


MISSISSIPPI  RIVER  COMMERCE  353 

One  of  these  steamboat  organizations,  the  Northern 
Line,  plying  between  St.  Paul  and  St.  Louis,  until 
1860  was  nothing  more  than  a  pooling  agreement 
among  individual  steamboat  owners.  As  such  it  had 
originated  in  1857,  the  aftermath  of  a  period  of 
ruinous  competition.  In  1860  its  loose  organization 
was  exchanged  for  the  more  compact  unity  of  a 
stock  company,  a  consummation  of  such  arrange- 
ments not  infrequent  on  the  river. 

The  other  organization  was  the  Galena,  Dubuque, 
Dunleith  &:  Minnesota  Packet  Company,  organized 
in  1847  while  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  and  Iowa  were 
still  territories.  Until  1860  it  had  contrived  to  sup- 
press its  most  active  competitors  by  the  simple 
device  of  absorbing  them  as  soon  as  they  became 
formidable,  and  it  was  at  this  time  the  richest  and 
most  powerful  steamboat  company  in  the  trade  of 
the  upper  reaches  of  the  Mississippi  River.  At  Galena 
it  received  the  railroad  trafTic  of  the  Illinois  Central 
and  its  connecting  railroad  lines;  at  Prairie  du  Chien 
it  had  an  exclusive  contract  with  the  Milwaukee  c*s: 
Prairie  du  Chien  Railroad;  at  La  Crosse  it  made 
running  connections  with  the  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee 
Railroad.  Its  only  important  rival  within  its  own 
territory  was  the  Northern  Line  Packet  Company, 
with  which  it  contrived  in  1860  to  form  a  satisfactory 
traffic  agreement. 1  In  many  of  the  river  towns  of 
Wisconsin  it  was  condemned  as  an  oppressive  mo- 
nopoly that  should  be  destroyed. 

A  third  organization,   the  La   Crosse  &   St.   Paul 

1  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  Jan.  31,  1860;  Prescott  Transcript,  April  27, 
1860;  G.  B.  Merrick,  History  of  Upper  River  Packet  Companies,  Ms.,  26; 
Russell  Blakeley,  "Advent  of  Commerce  in  Minnesota,"  in  Minn.  Hist. 
Colls.,  VIII,  408. 


23 


354  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Packet  Company,  began  operations  at  La  Crosse  in 
1860.^  Its  leading  spirit  was  Capt.  W.  F.  Davidson, 
a  typical  western  steamboat  man  of  great  energy  and 
ability,  who  soon  became  the  dominating  figure  in 
the  steamboat  industry  of  the  upper  river.  Peculiarly 
advantageous  were  his  connections  with  the  La  Crosse 
&  Milwaukee  Railroad.  That  corporation,  by  reason 
of  possessing  the  most  direct  overland  route  from 
Minnesota  and  northwestern  Wisconsin  to  the  lake 
shore,  was  in  a  position  to  control  and  share  with 
him  the  richest  portion  of  the  through  commerce  of 
the  upper  river. 

His  line  flourished  from  the  very  outset.  Into  the 
developing  tributaries  of  the  upper  Mississippi,  par- 
ticularly the  Minnesota,  St.  Croix,  and  Chippewa, 
he  ran  prosperous  branch  lines,  all  of  which  gathered 
for  the  railroad  at  La  Crosse  millions  of  bushels  of 
grain  and  carried  back  in  return  thousands  of  tons 
of  merchandise  and  tens  of  thousands  of  immigrants. 

In  the  meantime  the  old  Galena  line,  nearly  ruined 
by  the  rate  war  of  1860,  and  possessing  only  round- 
about railroad  connections  with  the  lake  shore,  stead- 
ily declined  in  power.  In  1861  it  was  obliged  to 
transfer  a  number  of  its  vessels  to  the  vigorous  service 
of  its  rival,-  and  in  1862  its  owners  quietly  permitted 
Davidson  to  secure  a  controlling  interest  in  its  stock. ^ 
In  1863  its  property  was  formally  sold  to  an  associa- 
tion consisting  of  Davidson  and  officials  of  the  several 
railroads  centering  at  Dunleith,  Prairie  du  Chien,  and 

1  See  ante,  chap.  xii. 

^  Prescott  Transcript,  Aug.  17,  1861 ;  La  Crosse  Weekly  Republican,  Sept. 
18,  1867;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Aug.  14  and  16,  1861. 

3  See  ante,  chap,  xii;  La  Crosse  Weekly  Republican,  Sept.  18,  1867; 
Minn.  Hist.  Colls.,  YIU,  408-U. 


COMMODORE  WILLIAM  F.  DAVIDSON 
From  photograph  loaned  by  Captain  Fred  A.  Bill 


MISSISSIPPI  RIVER  COMMERCE  355 

La  Crosse,^  and  in  the  following  year  it  was  reorgan- 
ized as  the  Northwestern  Packet  Company. - 

A  single  group  of  interests  now  controlled  prac- 
tically the  entire  river  commerce  between  Galena 
and  St.  Paul.  The  Northern  Line,  to  be  sure,  still 
maintained  a  regular,  if  infrequent,  service  between 
St.  Paul  and  St.  Louis,  but  its  potential  competition 
was  stifled  by  an  agreement  whereby  upon  freight 
carried  north  of  Galena  it  charged  the  rates  demanded 
by  the  Davidson  lines,  in  return  for  which  it  was  per- 
mitted to  fix  its  own  rates  upon  freight  carried  south 
of  that  city.^  How  complete  was  the  control  exer- 
cised by  this  combination  and  how  oppressive  was 
its  alliance  with  the  railroads  of  Wisconsin  and  Illinois 
became  startlingly  apparent  during  the  closing  years  of 
the  Civil  War. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  public  was  not  permitted 
to  know  that  Captain  Davidson  controlled  the  aflairs 
of  both  his  own  line  and  the  Northwestern  Packet 
Company.  In  the  spring  of  1866,  however,  shortly 
after  the  antimonopoly  reformers  had  forced  the 
separation  of  the  railroad  and  steamboat  interests 
on  the  upper  river,  it  was  formally  announced  that 
the  two  interests  had  combined.^  The  consolidated 
corporation,  known  as  the  Northwestern  Union 
Packet  Company,  was  the  most  powerful  steamboat 
organization  on  the  entire  Mississippi  River.  It 
owned  at  the  end  of  1866  thirty  steamboats,  of  which 

1  Prairie  du  Chieii  Courier,  Nov.  5,  1863;  La  Crosse  Democrat,  Nov. 
10,  1863;  La  Crosse  Weekly  Republican,  Jan.  27,  1864  and  Sept.  18,  1867; 
Prescott  Journal,  Dec.  5,  1863;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Dec.  5,  1863. 

2  L.  Kessinger,  History  of  Buffalo  County,  330. 

3  Chicago  Tribune,  Dec.  11,  1865;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Dec.  13,  1865. 
^  Prescott  Journal,  May  5,  1866. 


356  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

eleven  were  palatial  sidewheelers  and  nineteen,  stern- 
wheelers.  In  addition  it  possessed  115  barges.  Ac- 
cording to  the  river  press  this  was  the  finest  fleet 
ever  afloat  on  western  waters.  The  property  of  the 
corporation  was  capitalized  at  $1,500,000,  including 
its  boats,  two  large  dockyards,  and  15,000  acres  of 
woodland  from  which  it  secured  its  fuel.^ 

The  entire  river  trade  of  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota 
was  thus  monopolized  in  1866  by  a  single  great 
corporation.  The  Northern  Line  was  still  independ- 
ent, but  the  length  of  its  run  from  St.  Louis  to  St. 
Paul  rendered  it  unable  to  furnish  a  sufflciently 
frequent  service  for  effective  competition.  The  rivals 
were,  moreover,  ordinarily  able  to  maintain  harmony 
by  rate  agreements  and  a  judicious  division  of  terri- 
tory. A  rate  conflict  did,  indeed,  break  out  in  the 
season  of  1868,  when  the  Northwestern  Union  Packet 
Company  invaded  the  southern  precincts  of  its  rival, 
but  this  quarrel  was  shortly  composed  and  a  joint 
agreement  entered  into  which  endured  until  the  early 
seventies  when  the  two  companies  were  merged  into 
one. 2 

We  may  best  judge  of  the  extent  to  which  concen- 
tration had  worked  itself  out  during  the  Civil  War  by 
a  glance  at  the  steamboat  records  of  St.  Paul.  In 
the  season  of  1866,  of  the  sixty-three  steamboats 
running  into  this  port,  forty-four  were  owned  by 
the  Northwestern  Union  and  the  Northern  Line 
companies;  of  the  180  barges  employed   in   its  trade 

1  St.  Paul  Weekly  Pioneer,  Dec.  21.  1866;  La  Crosse  Weekly  Republican, 
Sept.  18,  1867. 

^Oshkosh  Times,  April  27,  1868;  Green  Bay  Advocate,  June  25,  1868; 
Milwaukee  News,  Mar.  6,  1869;  Prescott  Journal,  Feb.  10,  1870;  Minn. 
Hist.  Colls.,  VIII,  414-15. 


MISSISSIPPI  RIVER  COMMERCE  357 

they  owned  175.^  The  steamboat  industry  like  many 
others  had  outgrown  its  old-lime  individualism.  It 
had  entered  upon  a  new  era  of  concentrated  corpo- 
rate control,  which  became  more  and  more  marked 
during  the  seventies  as  the  river  commerce  declined 
under  the  effects  of  railroad  competition. ^ 

Thus  far  we  have  considered  only  incidentally  the 
influence  of  railroads  upon  the  commerce  of  the  upper 
river.  We  must  now  trace  this  out  in  some  detail, 
sketching  hastily  in  introduction  the  conditions 
existing  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  overland  carriers. 

In  1823  for  the  first  time  a  steamboat  succeeded 
in  ascending  the  Mississippi  River  to  the  present 
site  of  St.  Paul.  Others  followed  as  the  northern 
country  developed,  bringing  merchandise  and  goods 
for  the  Indian  trade,  carrying  away  lead  from  the 
Galena,  Dubuque,  and  Potosi  mines,  and  furs  brought 
by  native  trappers  to  St.  Paul  and  Prairie  du  Chien. 
Such  of  this  trafTic  as  was  bound  for  Atlantic  seaports 
followed  the  exceedingly  indirect  and  expensive  river 
route  via  St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans.  Frequently  it 
occurred  that  lead,  mined  in  the  Mineral  Point  region 
and  carried  thousands  of  miles  by  water  to  New  York, 
was  destined  for  Milwaukee,  where  it  arrived  after 
months  of  travel  but  175  miles  from  the  place  where 
it  had  been  mined. 

During  the  fifties  all  these  conditions  were  trans- 
formed. The  Illinois  &  Michigan  Canal  was  com- 
pleted in  1851,  providing  a  continuous  watercourse 
from  the  Mississippi  River  to  Lake  Michigan.     In 

1  St.  Paul  Weekly  Pioneer,  Dec.  21,  1866. 

^  Near  the  close  of  the  sixties  the  Diamond  Jo  Line  of  steamboats, 
which  later  became  the  greatest  on  the  upper  river,  was  organized.  See 
Miss.  Valley  Hist.  Assn.,  Proc,  1915,  217-61. 


358  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

1854  the  first  railroad  line  from  the  lake  reached  the 
Mississippi  at  Rock  Island.  Thereafter  in  rapid  suc- 
cession other  railroad  lines  in  Illinois  and  Wisconsin 
arrived  at  the  river,  tapping  it  ever  nearer  and  nearer 
its  source. 

The  new  commercial  paths  thus  established  by 
way  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Erie  Canal  to  the 
Atlantic  were  so  much  more  direct  and  economical 
than  the  old  route  that  by  the  time  western  Wiscon- 
sin and  Minnesota  were  sufTiciently  developed  to  have 
a  large  grain  trade  the  trend  of  commerce  was  already 
away  from  the  river.  We  have  seen  how  little  the 
closing  of  the  lower  Mississippi  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  Civil  War  disturbed  the  people  of  the  upper  valley. 
Within  a  few  months  they  had  adjusted  themselves 
to  the  new  conditions,  and  the  only  effect  of  the 
blockade  was  to  hasten  the  inevitable  diversion  of 
the  river  traffic  to  these  new  northern  highways. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  competition  of  the  rail- 
roads did  not  decrease  the  steamboat  commerce  of 
the  upper  river.  On  the  contrary  the  packets  were 
never  more  busily  and  profitably  employed  than 
during  the  years  between  1855  and  1865.  Railroads 
were  few  and  far  between;  they  penetrated  only  the 
comparatively  well-settled  country.  The  newer 
regions  about  the  headwaters  of  the  Mississippi  were 
still  obliged  to  rely  chiefly  upon  steamboats  for  the 
transportation  of  their  surplus. 

A  notable  change  had  taken  place,  however,  in  the 
character  of  the  packet  commerce.  It  no  longer 
descended  the  river  to  St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans  as 
formerly,  but  a  large  part  was  deflected  at  the  rail- 
road terminals.    Steamboats  gathered  their  cargoes  at 


MISSISSIPPI  RIVER  COMMERCE  359 

St.  Paul,  Hudson,  Red  Wing,  Winona,  and  a  dozen 
other  river  landings,   only  to  deliver  their  accumu- 
lated  burdens   to    the   waiting   cars   at    La    Crosse, 
Prairie    du    Chien,    and    Dunleith.      The   river   was 
employed  merely  to  gather  up,  as  the  agent  of  the 
railroads,   the  surplus  of  the  upper  country  and   to 
distribute,  as  the  agent  of  the  railroads,  the  supplies 
which  the  latter  brought  from  the  East.     It  had  be- 
come but  a  feeder,  subsidiary  to  rival  trade  courses. 
The  lower  river  towns  were  loth  to  admit  that  this 
change  was  the  result  of  immutable  economic  laws. 
They  clung  to  the  belief  that  the  bulky  products  of 
the   upper  valley   must   return   to   what   they   were 
pleased  to  term  the  natural  route.     The  increasing 
diversion   of  traffic  to   the  northern   highways   they 
attributed  chiefly  to  obstructions  in  the  channel  of 
the  river.     They  ascribed  their  failure  to  retain  the 
trade   of   the   Northwest   particularly   to   the   rapids 
above  Keokuk  and  at  Rock  Island  and  the  silt  bars 
formed    at    the    mouth    of    the    Mississippi.       Their 
remedy  consisted  in  the  removal  of  these  obstruc- 
tions.i    Between  1866  and  1873  they  held  convention 
after  convention   memorializing   Congress  upon  the 
subject.     In   the  upper  valley   their  demands  were 
sanctioned    and   reenforced    upon    other   grounds  by 
the    discontented    antimonopohsts.        Congress    re- 
sponded readily  and  many  improvements  were  made. 
Commerce,  however,  stubbornly  refused  to  be  coaxed 
back  to  its  old  haunts. 

1  See  Proceedings  of  the  Mississippi  River  Improvement  Convention  of 
Dubuque,  Feb.  14  and  15,  1866;  Proceedings  of  the  River  Improvement 
Convention  of  St.  Louis,  Feb.  12  and  13,  1867;  Memorial  adopted  at  New 
Orleans,  Keokuk,  and  Louisville  conventions  in  1869;  Transportation 
Routes  to  the  Seaboard,  I,  187-215,  II,  591-715. 


360  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

A  prospect  for  the  revival  of  the  river  traffic 
seemed  to  be  held  out  during  the  later  sixties  by  the 
rapid  development  of  barge  and  towboat  transpor- 
tation. St.  Louis,  in  particular,  was  sanguine  of 
regaining  thereby  her  lost  trade  with  the  upper  river. 
She  set  out  in  this  hope  to  improve  her  facilities  for 
handling  bulk  grain,  erecting  elevators  for  the  first 
time  and  establishing  a  regular  barge  line  to  New 
Orleans.^  Her  efforts  attracted  considerable  attention 
in  the  upper  valley,  especially  in  1869,  when  hard 
times  and  the  low  price  of  wheat  forced  that  region 
to  look  about  for  cheaper  avenues  to  market. ^  How- 
ever, the  advantages  of  the  northern  highways  were 
not  easy  to  overcome,  and  the  railroads  running 
between  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Mississippi  promptly 
met  the  potential  competition  of  the  river  in  1869  by 
cutting  their  rates  in  half.^  The  commercial  centers 
on  the  Great  Lakes  likewise  jealously  guarded  their 
new  accessions.  They  diligently  spread  the  impres- 
sion, erroneous  though  effective,  that  wheat  sent  to 
market  via  the  southern  route  would  heat  and  spoil 
owing  to  the  humidity  and  high  temperatures  pre- 
vailing in  the  zone  of  the  Gulf.*   Thus  promptly  were 

1  St.  Louis  Union  Merchants'  Exchange,  Reports,  1865-70;  New  York 
Produce  Exchange,  Report,  1872-73,  250-52;  57  Cong.,  1  sess.,  House 
Executive  Documents,  17,  No.  2,  serial  No.  4284,  Mississippi  River  Commis- 
sion Report,  1901,  33-40;  Transportation  Routes  to  the  Seaboard,  II,  598-99. 

^  One  of  the  expressions  of  this  movement  in  Wisconsin  was  the  organi- 
zation in  the  winter  of  1869  by  the  merchants  of  St.  Croix  and  Pierce 
counties  of  the  St.  Croix  Valley  Exporting  Association.  This  was  a  coop- 
erative shipping  company,  organized  under  the  auspices  of  a  local  branch 
of  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry  for  the  purpose  of  shipping  wheat  to  St. 
Louis  in  barges. 

'  See  post,  chap.  xv. 

*  So  wide  a  credence  did  this  impression  gain  that  in  1869  the  St.  Louis 
Grain  Association  felt  called  upon  to  demonstrate  its  falsity  by  shipping  to 


MISSISSIPPI  RIVER  COMMERCE  361 

the    advantages    of    barge    transportation    met    and 
neutralized. 

The  northern  railroads,  having  captured  the 
southern  traffic  of  the  upper  river,  were  soon  reaching 
out  to  absorb  even  the  remaining  local  commerce. 
The  close  of  the  war  found  them  rapidly  pushing 
into  the  very  heart  of  the  country  from  which  the 
steamboats  had  hitherto  drawn  their  sustenance. 
In  1867  they  struck  the  first  blow  when  the  Milwau- 
kee &  St.  Paul  Railway  extended  its  Minnesota  line 
to  St.  Paul,  the  head  of  steamboat  navigation  on  the 
Mississippi.^  In  1870  the  Lake  Superior  &  Mississippi 
Railroad  gave  St.  Paul  new  railroad  connection  with 
the  flourishing  young  port  of  Duluth  at  the  head  of 
Lake  Superior.  On  the  Wisconsin  side  of  the  river 
the  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railway  completed  a 
second  route  to  the  Minnesota  metropolis  via  Winona 
in  1871.  Shortly  afterwards  the  West  Wisconsin 
Railroad  provided  a  third.  From  every  direction 
railroads  penetrated  the  region  that  for  a  score  of 
years  had  nourished  and  sustained  the  river  steam- 
boats.^ 

The  first  railroad  whistle  heard  within  the  precincts 
of  St.  Paul  sounded  the  doom  of  the  waning  river 
commerce.  At  the  very  outset  the  rich  passenger 
traffic,  later  the  general  merchandise  trade,  and 
eventually  the  bulky  grain,  passed  to  the  new  high- 
Liverpool,  via  New  Orleans,  at  regular  intervals  during  the  season,  test 
cargoes  of  wheat,  all  of  which  arrived  in  good  condition.  Mississippi 
River  Commission  Report,  1901,  33-40;  Transportation  Routes  to  the  Sea- 
board, 1,  201-3,  II,  596-97,  858-60. 

^  After  the  opening  of  this  road  freight  rates  from  Wisconsin  and  Min- 
nesota river  towns  to  Milwaukee  were  usually  the  same  as  to  St.  Louis  by 
river. 

*  St.  Paul  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Reports,  1869-73. 


362  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

ways.  After  1867  even  barges  declined  in  number, 
and  their  activities  outlived  those  of  the  steamboats 
only  a  few  years.  For  some  decades  the  river  was 
busy  with  lumber  rafts  from  northern  Wisconsin  and 
Minnesota,  but  the  gradual  extinction  of  the  forests 
brought  this  occupation  also  to  a  close.  The  proud 
sway  of  the  river  over  the  destinies  of  the  upper 
valley  was  at  an  end,  its  picturesque  steamboats  and 
barges  supplanted  by  the  prosaic  but  efTicient  box 
car.  Today  it  may  be  said  with  almost  literal  truth, 
the  Father  of  Waters  goes  unvexed  to  the  sea. 


CHAPTER  XV 
COMMERCE  OF  THE  GREAT  LAKES 

We  turn  now  to  Wisconsin's  commerce  on  the  Great 
Lakes,  taking  up  as  with  the  river  trade,  first  its 
development,  second  its  transportation  agents,  and 
third  its  competition  with  the  railroads.  The  most 
obvious  characteristic  of  this  commerce  was  its 
dependence  upon  the  crude  products  of  the  extractive 
industries.  Wheat,  corn,  flour,  in  general,  heavy 
foodstuffs,  constituted  its  entire  eastward  movement. 
Lumber,  coal,  salt,  and  stone  made  up  the  bulk  of  its 
westward  and  southward  movement.  The  water 
route  was  the  carrier  only  of  such  commodities  as  did 
not  require  swift  transportation  and  were  too  bulky 
to  be  carried  by  rail. 

Like  the  commerce  of  the  upper  Mississippi  River 
this  w^as  almost  wholly  "through"  in  character. 
Freights  originating  at  Milwaukee,  Racine,  or  Green 
Bay  were  destined  for  the  lower  lake  ports,  there  to 
be  transferred  to  canal  boats  and  railroads  running  to 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Boston;  or  sent  directly 
without  transshipment  to  Montreal  by  way  of  the 
Welland  Canal.  Of  a  local  commerce  from  port  to 
port  or  lake  to  lake,  such  as  flourishes  today,  there 
was  then  almost  none. 

The  richest  grain-producing  areas  in  the  world  at 
this  time  lay  west  and  northwest  of  Lake  Michigan. 
Draining  them  of  their  immense  surplus  were  the 
two  rising  young  lake  ports,  Chicago  and  Milwaukee. 

f  363  1 


364  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Milwaukee  contested  with  her  neighbor  the  trade  of 
the  northern  wheat-raising  portions.  Wheat  and 
flour  constituted  the  chief  reliance  of  her  commerce. 
In  striking  contrast  to  her  singleness  of  interest  was 
the  variety  of  pursuits  of  the  Illinois  metropolis. 
Situated  between  a  notable  corn  belt  and  a  notable 
wheat  belt  Chicago  was  unrivalled  as  a  corn,  wheat, 
and  oats  market.  She  boasted  the  greatest  primary 
hog  and  beef  trade  in  the  country,  ranked  as  the 
greatest  lumber  distributor  in  the  world,  and  in 
addition  maintained  manufacturing  interests  of  no 
small  importance.  She  but  reflected  in  all  this  the 
nature  of  the  region  which  she  served. 

So,  too,  did  Milwaukee  in  her  commerce  mirror  the 
development  of  her  hinterland.  Wisconsin,  northern 
Iowa,  and  Minnesota  lay  just  north  of  the  great  corn 
line,  leaving  the  Cream  City  without  an  important 
corn  traffic.  Its  hog  and  beef  trade,  therefore,  was 
small  compared  with  that  of  Chicago.  Large  portions 
of  the  territory  tributary  to  it  were  either  covered 
with  forest  or  situated  so  near  the  pine  supply  as  to 
preclude  the  possibility  of  any  lumber  trade  with  a 
central  distributor.  It  was  only  as  a  wheat  market 
that  Milwaukee  could  hope  at  this  time  to  compete 
with  her  aspiring  rival  to  the  south. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  the  career  of 
Milwaukee  as  an  exporter  of  wheat  extended  back 
only  a  score  of  years.  Her  first  shipment  seems  to 
have  been  made  in  1841,  consisting  of  a  small  cargo 
of  about  4,000  bushels.  In  order  to  gather  so  large 
a  consignment  at  that  time  the  shippers  had  been 
obUged  to  circulate  handbills  "far  and  near  through 
the  country,  announcing  to  the  inhabitants  thereof 


LAKE  COMMERCE  365 

the  somewhat  startling  and  quite  unexpected  intelli- 
gence that  cash  was  being  paid  in  Milwaukee  for 
wheat. "^  From  such  humble  beginnings  grew  a  trade 
that  by  1860  amounted  to  7,500,000  bushels.^ 

Milwaukee  was  elated  over  her  wheat  exports  in 
1860.  Nor  was  this  elation  without  good  reason. 
Her  exportation  in  1860  had  nearly  doubled  that 
of  any  previous  year.  Yet  in  1861  the  amount  ex- 
ported again  nearly  doubled,^  and  during  the  re- 
maining years  of  the  war  continued  to  average 
nearly  12,000,000  bushels.  In  1862  Milwaukee  could 
proudly  proclaim  herself  the  greatest  primary  wheat 
market  in  the  world,  a  distinction  which  Chicago 
had  previously  held,  and  which  now  passed  back  and 
forth  between  these  two  cities  during  the  remaining 
years  of  the  decade. 

Several  other  Wisconsin  lake  centers,  particularly 
Racine,  Green  Bay,  and  Sheboygan,  at  this  time 
exported  small  quantities  of  the  great  northern 
staple.  Together  with  Milwaukee  they  sent  eastward 
during  the  five  years  of  the  war  approximately 
67,000,000  bushels,  of  which  the  Cream  City  ex- 
ported 60,000,000.^ 

The  rapidity  of  this  development  was  in  part  the 
cause,  in  part  the  result,  of  a  revolution  west  of  Lake 
Michigan  in  the  methods  of  shipping  and  transferring 
grain.  Prior  to  1857  wheat  elevators  for  the  handling 
of  bulk  grain  were  known  only  in  the  East.  Condi- 
tions in  the  new  West  were  such  that  merchants  felt 

1  Address  of  Thomas  Whitney  before  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
Feb.  3,  1863;  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1858,  6-7. 

2  Id.,  1860,  23. 

3  Id.,  1861,  16. 
'  Id.,  1860-65. 


366  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

compelled  to  adhere  to  the  antiquated  and  cumber- 
some methods  of  dealing  with  grain  in  bags.  Old- 
fashioned  private  warehouses  for  transferring  bagged 
wheat  were  the  only  facilities  that  even  such  export 
centers  as  Milwaukee  and  Chicago  afforded. 

So  soon,  however,  as  Milwaukee  had  carried  to 
completion  her  railroad  lines  to  the  Mississippi  and 
had  felt  the  resulting  pressure  of  the  grain  trade  of 
the  upper  valley  she  set  about  to  secure  adequate 
elevator  facilities.  The  rapidity  with  which  she 
moved  during  the  decade  of  the  sixties  was  equalled 
only  by  the  swiftness  with  which  her  commerce 
expanded.  In  1857  she  erected  her  first  modern 
elevator.^  By  1860  she  had  three,  by  1866,  seven  or 
eight. 2  The  daily  capacity  of  these  establishments 
for  transferring  bulk  grain  in  1858  was  80,000  bushels; 
in  1860,  120,000  bushels;  in  1866,  1,100,000  bushels.^ 
A  single  enormous  structure,  said  to  have  been  the 
greatest  in  the  world,  which  the  Milwaukee  &  St. 
Paul  Railway  built  in  Milwaukee  in  1865  had  a 
storage  capacity  of  1,500,000  bushels  and  a  daily 
shipping  capacity  of  450,000  bushels.^  In  all  the  grain- 
gathering  centers  on  the  upper  Mississippi  River,  in 
the  receiving  centers  of  interior  Wisconsin,  and  in  the 
exporting  centers  on  Lake  Michigan,  a  similar  rapid 
development  was  taking  place. ^      St.   Louis  on  the 

1  Id.,  1858,  24-25. 

-  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  1,  1861;  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
Report,  1866,  32. 

=  M,  1858,  24-25;  id.,  1866,  32;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  1,  1861. 

*  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1866,  32;  Milwaukee 
Daily  Wis.,  Feb.  25,  1865;  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Mar.  7,  1865. 

5  Milwaukee  &  La  Crosse  Railway  Company,  Report,  1860,  520;  id., 
1861,  4;  Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  Railway  Company,  Report, 
1861,  11;  Chicago  &  Northwestern  Railway  Company,  Report,  1863,  4; 


LAKE  COMMERCE  367 

other  hand  did  not  build  her  first  elevator  until  1865. 
Until  then  she  had  facilities  only  for  bagged  grain, 
a  striking  confession  on  her  part  of  the  decadence  of 
her  trade  with  the  upper  river.  ^ 

The  successful  transportation  of  grain  in  bulk, 
which  became  feasible  with  the  introduction  of  the 
elevator  system,  was  the  most  signal  achievement  of 
its  kind  since  the  advent  of  railroads  in  the  region  west 
of  Lake  Michigan.  Coming  into  full  operation  just  in 
time  to  be  of  service  during  the  war,  it  afTected  econ- 
omies to  which  were  due  in  no  small  part  the  abound- 
ing prosperity  of  the  farmers  of  this  region  and  the 
swiftness  of  their  agricultural  expansion  during  the 
critical  years  of  the  slavery  conflict. 

The  grain-exporting  centers  of  the  new  West  found 
it  impossible  to  pattern  their  grain-elevator  system 
after  the  accepted  eastern  model.  Perhaps  this  was 
one  of  the  reasons  why  they  clung  as  long  as  they  did 
to  the  outworn  warehouse  methods.  Geographical 
differences  permitted  Milwaukee  and  Chicago  to 
adopt  the  eastern  plan  of  operation  only  after  radical 
alterations. 

Buffalo,  Oswego,  and  New  York  received  their 
grain  by  water.  They  had  shipments  come  to  them 
by  the  boatload,  a  single  consignment  containing 
thousands,  often  tens  of  thousands,  of  bushels. 
It  was  feasible  in  their  elevator  bins  to  handle  each 
shipment  as  a  distinct  and  separate  unit.  From  the 
very  beginning,  therefore,  they  bought  and  sold 
grain  by  sample. 

Prescott  Transcript,  June  1,  1861;  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Dec.  16,  1862  and 
Feb.  25,  1864;  Green  Bay  Advocate,  Aug.  10,  1865. 

1  St.  Louis  Union  Merchants'  Exchange,  Report,  1865,  11-12. 


368  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

In  the  region  west  of  Lake  Michigan  this  was 
impossible.  Lake  centers  like  Milwaukee  and  Chi- 
cago received  their  wheat  not  in  large,  but  in  small 
parcels.  Not  more  than  350  bushels  was  the  capacity 
of  the  railroad  car  of  that  day.  Had  the  elevators  been 
forced  to  maintain  separate  each  small  consignment 
as  it  arrived,  the  chief  economy  of  the  new  system 
would  have  been  lost.  The  handling  of  grain  in  large 
masses  was  the  great  objective  of  elevator  operation 
and  this  could  be  achieved  only  by  combining  in  the 
bins  the  hundreds  of  little  shipments  that  the  rail- 
roads brought  in. 

If  all  wheat  were  of  the  same  quality  this  would 
have  occasioned  no  difhculty.  No  two  shipments, 
however,  are  ever  exactly  alike,  and  between  the  best 
and  the  worst  there  is  a  wide  difference.  It  was 
obviously  out  of  the  question  to  mingle  or  combine 
indiscriminately  good  and  bad  consignments.  The 
farmer  or  merchant  whose  grain  passed  into  a  Mil- 
waukee elevator  would  never  permit  its  identity  to 
be  lost  in  the  great  bins  unless  first  its  quality  had 
been  exactly  and  impartially  recognized. 

In  response  to  this  situation  the  boards  of  trade  of 
Milwaukee  and  Chicago  during  the  later  fifties 
evolved  a  system  for  rigidly  inspecting,  grading,  and 
weighing  grain. ^  They  maintained  at  the  elevators 
for  that  purpose  disinterested  inspectors,  whose  func- 
tion it  was  to  determine  the  quantity  and  quality 
of  every  carload  of  incoming  produce  before  it  was 
hoisted  into  the  bins.  These  officials  were  required  to 
provide    shippers    with    receipts    specifying    exactly 

'  Milwaukee  established  its  grading  system  in  October,  1858.     See  Mil- 
waukee Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1858,  13. 


LAKE  COMMERCE  369 

the  quality  and  weight  of  the  wheat  or  corn  which 
they  had  received.  An  elevator  receipt  of  this  kind 
entitled  the  holder  at  any  time  to  receive  a  like 
amount  and  grade  of  grain.  If  the  shipment  was 
made  in  winter  it  remained  in  the  elevator  at  small 
cost  until  the  opening  of  navigation  in  the  spring. 
If  it  arrived  during  the  season  of  navigation,  it  was 
upon  proper  order  spouted  into  a  lake  vessel  and  sent 
onward  to  Buffalo  or  some  other  lower  lake  port. 

The  merchants  of  Milwaukee  and  Chicago  thus 
established  the  now  universal  practice  of  handling 
grain  by  grades.  Eastern  centers  continued  for  a 
time  to  buy  and  sell  by  sample.  In  the  early  seventies, 
however,  the  trunk  railroads  running  from  Milwaukee 
and  Chicago  to  the  Atlantic  coast  became  able  to 
compete  successfully  with  the  Great  Lakes  for  the  car- 
riage of  grain  to  the  seaboard.  The  East  was  then  com- 
pelled to  adopt  the  western  plan  of  elevator  operation.^ 

Excellent  though  the  grading  system  was,  it  had 
some  obvious  limitations.  It  could  make  only  a  rough 
classification  of  grain.  Considerations  of  economy  in 
storage  and  transfer  demanded  as  few  grades  as 
possible.  Considerations  of  accuracy  in  fixing  the 
quality  of  shipments  demanded  as  many  as  possible. 
A  working  basis  lay  between  the  two  extremes. 

In  actual  operation  a  shipper  whose  grain  fell  ever 
so  little  below  the  quality  known  as  No.  1  was  obliged 
to  accept  a  receipt  specifying  common  No.  2.  If  his 
wheat  were  of  better  quality  than  No.  1,  though  not 
quite  equal  to  Extra,  his  receipt  entitled  him  only  to 
average  No.  1. 

1  Buffalo  Board  of  Trade,  Report,  1869,  10;  Transportation  Routes  to  the 
Seaboard,  I  and  11. 

24 


370  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

This  natural  difficulty  was  accentuated  by  the 
conduct  of  the  grain-carrying  railroads  running  to 
the  lake  shore.  Usually  the  latter  owned  or  controlled 
large  elevators  to  which  they  insisted  delivering 
whatever  grain  they  were  called  upon  to  transport. 
Merchants,  millers,  and  independent  warehousemen 
protested  that  this  created  a  monopoly  with  power 
to  fix  unlimited  charges  for  storing  and  transferring 
grain.  They  asserted  that  railroad  elevators  defraud- 
ed them  by  corrupt  mixing  of  grades.  "We  purchase 
from  the  farmers,"  they  complained,  "a  superior 
grade  of  No.  1  wheat,  weighing  nearly  sixty  pounds 
to  the  bushel.  It  passes  through  the  railroad  elevators 
and  that  is  the  last  we  see  of  it.  In  its  place  we  are 
given  the  average  No.  1  mixture  that  flows  from  the 
elevator  bins,  weighing  only  fifty-eight  pounds  to  the 
bushel.  Who  gains  by  this  strange  exchange?  None 
but  the  owners  of  the  railroad  elevators.  They  seize 
upon  our  fancy  grain,  mix  it  with  their  own  inferior 
qualities,  and  behold,  they  have  brought  their  cheap 
lots  up  to  a  grade  passing  inspection."^ 

These  grievances  came  to  a  head  in  Milwaukee 
in  1863.  The  railroads  of  that  city  under  no  circum- 
stances permitted  bulk  grain  to  pass  to  other  than 
their  own  elevators.  They  allowed  bagged  wheat  to 
be  taken  elsewhere,  but  discouraged  its  shipment  by 
imposing  an  extra  charge  of  4  cents  a  sack  for  trans- 
porting it. 2 

The  merchants,  millers,  and  warehousemen  were 
united  in  their  protest.    They  insisted  that  the  rail- 

^  Paraphrased  from  accounts  in  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  July  2,  1862,  Jan. 
9,  1863,  Mar.  7,  15,  26,  27,  29,  and  30,  1864;  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis., 
Jan.  14,  1863;  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Mar.  30,  1864. 

*  See  references  in  preceding  note. 


LAKE  COMMERCE  371 

road  companies  remove  their  discriminatory  rate 
against  bagged  wheat,  and  that  they  permit  bulk 
wheat  to  be  taken  to  other  elevators  than  those  be- 
longing to  the  railroads.  After  some  discussion  the 
railroad  companies  agreed  to  the  first  demand  but 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  second.^  In  the  spring  of 
1864,  however,  the  merchants  of  Milwaukee  carried 
the  matter  to  the  State  legislature  and  there  eventu- 
ally won  their  point.  The  statute  which  they  secured 
compelled  the  railroad  companies  to  deliver  bulk 
grain  to  any  elevators  designated  by  the  shippers, 
provided  only  such  elevators  were  equipped  with 
adequate  sidetracks. ^  Apparently  the  new  law 
operated  satisfactorily,  for  it  was  not  until  the  Gran- 
ger excitement  of  1873  that  there  was  again  united 
agitation  against  the  elevator  companies.  In  Illinois 
the  solution  of  these  difTiculties  was  less  prompt,  and 
there  the  elevator  question  occupied  a  prominent 
place  in  the  antimonopoly  revolt.^ 

Closely  identified  with  the  wheat  trade  was  the 
flour  trade.  In  this,  also,  Milwaukee  led  the  Wis- 
consin lake  ports.  During  the  five  years  of  the  Civil 
War  she  exported  nearly  3,000,000  barrels,  an  amount 
equivalent  to  13,500,000  bushels  of  wheat. ^  Her 
trade,  however,  was  then  only  in  its  infancy.  It 
remained  for  the  years  after  1865  to  establish  her 
real  strength  in  this  traffic. 

Between  1865  and  1873  Milwaukee  first  effectually 
shook  off  her  provincialism,  extending  her  railroads 
into  the  developing  states  of  Minnesota   and    Iowa 

1  See  references  cited  ante,  370,  note  1. 

2  Wis.  Gen.  Laws,  1864,  chap.  390. 

3  Chicago  Tribune,  Feb.  14,  1866. 

*  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Reports,  1860-65. 


372  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

and  drawing  to  herself  their  vast  flour  and  wheat 
trade.  Her  commerce  became  more  and  more  closely 
identified  with  their  farming  development  and  less 
dependent  upon  the  unstable  agricultural  fortunes  of 
the  home  State.  By  1873  her  flour  exports  had 
climbed  to  1,805,200  barrels  and  her  wheat  exports 
to  24,994,266  bushels. ^  She  ranked  at  that  time  as 
the  greatest  flour  market  as  well  as  the  greatest 
wheat  market  on  all  the  upper  lakes. ^ 

Green  Bay,  Racine,  and  Sheboygan,  together  with 
a  number  of  other  Wisconsin  ports  on  Lake  Michigan, 
were  likewise  flour  markets  of  some  importance. 
Their  combined  exports  during  the  five  years  of  the 
Civil  War  amounted  to  some  600,000  barrels. ^  Their 
geographical  position,  however,  barred  them  from 
anything  more  than  a  local  trade  and  their  importance 
consequently  continued  to  be  merely  local. 

For  the  transportation  of  this  produce  to  the 
seaboard  in  1860  Wisconsin  depended  almost  wholly 
upon  the  great  chain  of  northern  lakes.  We  turn  now 
to  an  account  of  this  inland  highway  and  particularly 
to  the  merchant  marine  that  found  employment 
upon  its  waters.  When  the  season  of  1860  opened 
the  marine  faced  depression  everywhere  from  Lake 
Michigan  to  distant  Lake  Ontario.  No  interest 
had  been  struck  a  more  crushing  blow  by  the  panic 
of  1857.  Vessels  went  begging  for  freights  over  the 
entire  chain  of  lakes;  dozens  were  laid  up  or  dis- 
mantled; many  went  into  the  ocean  trade;  a  number 
of  tugs  departed  by  way  of  the  Mississippi  for  the 

>  Id.,  1873,  52. 

"^  The  number  of  clearances  from  the  port  of  Milwaukee  in  1858  was 
2,113;  in  1866,  3,572;  in  1873,  5.535. 
•'  Id.,  1860-65. 


LAKE  COMMERCE  373 

more  prosperous  waters  of  New  Orleans.^  The  total 
number  of  ships  plying  the  northern  lakes  fell  from 
1,548  in  1858  to  1,457  in  1860;  their  total  tonnage 
decreased  from  404,301  tons  to  377,825. ^ 

The  year  1860,  however,  witnessed  a  swift  recovery. 
In  that  year  the  Northwest  reaped  a  greater  grain 
crop  than  it  had  ever  before  known.  As  if  by  magic 
the  fortunes  of  the  lake  fleet  were  reversed.  No  sooner 
did  the  extent  of  the  crop  become  established  than 
carrying  rates  doubled  and  trebled,  and  many  a 
vessel  owner  earned  during  this  one  season  more  than 
the  total  value  of  his  boat.^  Even  more  prosperous 
was  the  season  of  1861.  Although  almost  every  other 
interest  in  the  Northwest  was  prostrate  owing  to 
the  outbreak  of  the  war,  the  shipping  interest  flour- 
ished.^ Never  in  the  history  of  the  lakes  had  carriers 
received  such  rates.  A  succession  of  excellent  crops 
and  the  closing  of  the  Mississippi  River  route  had 

1  For  a  graphic  description  of  conditions  in  1860  see  extract  from  New 
York  World,  printed  in  Oshkosh  Northwestern,  Jan.  4,  1861.  See  also 
Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1858,  25;  id.,  1859,  39-40. 

^  There  are  no  thoroughly  rehable  statistics  showing  the  total  tonnage 
of  the  lake  marine  for  the  early  sixties.  Those  contained  in  the  annual 
reports  of  the  U.  S.  Register  of  the  Treasury  in  "Commerce  and  Naviga- 
tion of  the  U.  S."  are  worthless.  The  best  are  to  be  found  in  the  board  of 
trade  reports  of  the  various  lake-shipping  centers.  P"or  the  period  1858 
to  1863  see  Chicago  Board  of  Trade,  Reports,  for  those  years,  and  U.  S. 
Sen.  Docs.,  38  Cong.,  1  sess.,  Ser.  No.  1176,  no.  54,  143-47;  for  the  period 
1860  to  1869  see  Buffalo  Board  of  Trade,  Reports,  for  those  years,  especi- 
ally that  of  1869,  and  Report  on  the  Vessels,  Commerce  and  Trade  of  the 
Lakes  and  Erie  Canal  (Buffalo,  1861),  4.  The  statistics  contained  in  the 
Buffalo  Reports  appear  to  have  been  compiled  from  the  Marine  Register 
of  the  Board  of  Lake  Underwriters,  and  are  probably  fairly  accurate;  for 
the  period  after  1868  see  G.  G.  Tunnel,  Statistics  of  Lake  Commerce,  U.  S. 
House  Ex.  Docs.,  55  Cong.,  2  sess.,  Ser.  No.  3679,  no.  277,  1-28. 

3  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Jan.  1,  1861;  Oshkosh  Northwestern,  Jan.  4,  1861; 
Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1860,  44-45. 

*  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1861,  26,  29-30. 


374  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

conspired  to  thrust  prosperity  upon  them.  New 
vessels  from  all  quarters  entered  the  thriving  service. 
By  1863  the  number  on  the  lakes  was  1,870;  470,034 
tons  measured  their  total  capacity.^ 

In  1863,  however,  a  reaction  set  in.  The  equili- 
brium between  supply  and  demand  had  been  restored, 
and  severe  competition  kept  rates  low  and  rather 
unprofitable.  There  was  a  sudden  return  of  great 
prosperity  in  1866,  when  rates  shot  up  to  heights 
almost  equal  to  those  of  1861,  and  a  similar  revival 
in  1872,^  but  with  these  exceptions  the  decade  be- 
tween 1863  and  1873  proved  a  disappointing  one. 
The  tonnage  of  the  lake  fleet  during  those  years  little 
more  than  held  its  own.  In  1872  it  stood  almost 
exactly  where  it  had  been  in  1863,^  and  the  only 
advance  that  the  decade  saw  was  an  increase  in  the 
efficiency  of  some  of  the  vessels  employed. 

The  service  which  this  lake  marine  rendered 
Wisconsin  and  in  general  the  Northwest  during  the 
years  of  the  Civil  War  is  beyond  calculation.  Rail- 
roads were  still  new  and  wholly  unprepared  to  trans- 
port at  small  cost  for  long  distances  the  bulky  wheat 
and  lumber  that  constituted  the  exports  of  the  Badger 
State.  Cheap  transportation  to  the  seaboard,  the 
key  to  the  prosperity  of  the  agricultural  Northwest, 
only  the  shipping  of  the  Great  Lakes  was  then 
prepared  to  give. 

By  far  the  largest  part  of  this  shipping  in  1860  was 
composed    of   sailing   vessels.      Popular    among   the 

^  See  references  cited  ante,  373,  note  2. 

^  For  lake  rates  see  the  Reports  of  the  Milwaukee,  Chicago,  and  Detroit 
boards  of  trade  for  the  years  1857-73.  See  also  Tunnel,  Statistics  of  Lake 
Commerce,  1-52;  Transportation  Routes  to  the  Seaboard,  I,  app.,  35-36. 

^  See  references  cited  ante,  373,  note  2. 


LAKE  COMMERCE  375 

latter  were  the  so-called  schooners,  constituting  80 
per  cent  or  more  of  the  total. ^  Other  common  types, 
classified  according  to  their  rigging,  were  barks, 
brigs,  brigantines,  and  sloops.  To  their  lot  fell  the 
transportation  of  the  exceptionally  bulky  freights- 
lumber,  coal,  salt,  wheat,  corn,  ore,  and  stone. 

In  1858  sailing  vessels  numbered  1,208  and  their 
capacity  was  263,512  tons.  By  1868  they  totalled 
1,855,  the  highest  record  ever  attained,  of  293,978 
tons  burden.  By  1875  their  count  had  fallen  to  1,710, 
but  their  tonnage,  owing  to  the  increased  average 
size  of  new  boats,  had  risen  to  339,787.2  After  1875 
their  construction  fell  to  minor  proportions,  and  by 
the  end  of  the  century  these  white-winged  carriers 
of  the  lakes  had  almost  disappeared.  On  Lake  Michi- 
gan they  remained  longest  of  all,  for  they  were 
especially  fitted  to  the  lumber  commerce  that  flour- 
ished on  its  waters. 

Steam-driven  vessels,  in  the  meantime,  maintained 
a  steady  growth.  They  possessed  every  advantage 
over  wind-propelled  craft.  In  a  storm  a  steamer  could 
hold  its  course  in  the  teeth  of  the  heaviest  gale, 
whereas  a  sailing  vessel  was  in  constant  danger  of 
being  dashed  to  pieces  upon  the  rugged  shores  that 
hem  in  these  landlocked  waters.  As  for  efficiency,  a 
steamer  could  accompHsh  from  two  to  two  and  a 
half  times  the  work  of  a  sailing  vessel  of  like  capacity, 
a  most  important  consideration  on  a  body  of  water 
that  is  closed  to  navigation  at  least  a  third  of  the 
year.  Reflecting  these  advantages,  the  number  of 
steam-driven   vessels  in   the   lake   marine   increased 

'  Ibid. 
2  Ibid. 


376  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

from  242  in  1857  to  802  in  1873/  a  rate  of  growth  that 
before  very  long  placed  them  in  control  of  the  carry- 
ing service  of  the  northern  lakes. 

Three  distinct  types  of  steam-driven  vessels  plied 
the  lakes — tugs,  side-wheel  steamers,  and  propellers. 
Tugs  were  employed,  as  they  are  today,  chiefly  for 
the  duty  about  canals  and  harbors.  The  side-wheel 
steamers  were  the  passenger  carriers  of  the  Great 
Lakes,  though  like  the  Mississippi  River  steamboats 
they  also  carried  freight,  particularly  merchandise, 
wheat,  and  flour.  They  had  come  into  prominence 
when  the  transportation  of  passengers,  and  par- 
ticularly immigrants,  from  the  Atlantic  coast  to  the 
West  was  the  business  exclusively  of  the  northern 
waterway.  Like  the  steamboats  of  the  Mississippi 
River  their  first-class  cabins  were  usually  elegant 
and  often  luxurious,  though  their  steerage  facilities 
left  much  to  be  desired.  As  soon  as  railroads  were 
completed  to  Chicago  and  Milwaukee  from  the  East 
their  better  passenger  traffic  deserted  them,  and  they 
were  left  with  the  transportation  of  only  the  poorer. 
Their  costly  construction  and  expense  of  operation 
forbade  their  entrance  into  the  freight  service,  and 
during  the  sixties  and  seventies,  as  a  result,  they 
slowly  disappeared  from  the  lakes. 

Screw-driven  propellers,  first  employed  in  the  early 
forties,  gradually  took  the  place  of  the  steamers  as 
favorites  of  the  merchant  marine.  Though  slower 
they  possessed  the  great  advantage  of  economy  of 
operation.  They,  too,  were  fitted  up  for  both  passen- 
ger and  freight  service,  though  usually  they  placed 

U.  C.  Mills,  Our  Inland  Seas  (Chicago,  1910),  158;  Tunnel,  Statistics 
of  Lake  Commerce,  26. 


LAKE  COMMERCE  377 

their  emphasis  upon  the  transportation  of  freight. 
On  Lake  Michigan  they  were  engaged  chiefly  in  the 
carrying  of  grain  and  flour  destined  for  Buffalo  and 
other  lower  lake  ports.  On  the  return  trips  they  brought 
back  immigrants  and  transported  such  commodities  as 
merchandise,  salt,  and  coal.  During  the  sixties  they 
grew  rapidly  in  numbers,  and  in  1873  occupied  among 
steam  craft  on  the  lakes  nearly  the  same  relative  posi- 
tion that  schooners  occupied  among  sailing  vessels. 

A  specialized  form  of  propeller  which  first  came 
into  use  during  the  early  sixties  was  the  steam  barge. 
This  w^as  a  vessel  containing  no  accommodations  for 
passengers  but  devoted  wholly  to  the  carrying  of 
freight.  For  cheap  transportation  of  grain  and  lumber 
it  had  no  peer  on  the  Great  Lakes,  and  its  entrance  into 
the  inland  marine  marked  an  important  advance. 

A  specialized  form  of  the  steam  barge  which  came 
into  use  during  the  same  period  was  the  "rabbit," 
so  called  because  of  its  peculiar  shape.  It  was  a  vessel 
built  especially  for  the  freighting  of  commodities 
like  salt,  stone,  and  coal,  and  was  less  used  on  Lake 
Michigan  than  on  other  lakes  in  the  chain. 

An  improvement  of  quite  another  character  was 
the  extension  of  the  towing  or  "hooker"  system  from 
the  lumber  to  the  grain  commerce.  This  occurred 
near  the  close  of  the  sixties.^  Productive  of  great 
economies,  it  was  soon  universally  adopted.  It  was 
an  innovation  of  much  significance  in  the  history  of 
the  lake  marine,  for  it  marked  the  beginning  of  the 
end  of  the  old  sailing  fleet. ^ 

1  See  ante,  chap.  iii.    See  also  Buffalo  Board  of  Trade,  Report,  1869,  5; 
Mills,  Our  Inland  Seas,  187-88. 

2  Unfortunately  "hookers"  are  classed  as  sailing  vessels  in  government 
statistics  because  they  retained  a  small  spread  of  canvas.     This   renders 


378  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Along  with  these  changes  went  a  slow  but  steady 
increase  in  the  size  of  lake  vessels.  As  on  the  Missis- 
sippi River,  the  tonnage  of  boats  was  here  conditioned 
by  the  depth  of  water  at  necessary  passageways.  The 
lakes  in  general  were  deep  enough  to  support  craft 
of  any  size.  This  was  of  little  avail,  however,  so  long 
as  harbors  were  unimproved  and  the  channels  con- 
necting the  several  members  of  the  chain  were 
shallow.  Especially  troublesome  restrictions  of  this 
kind  were  the  meager  capacities  of  the  Erie  and  the 
Welland  canals,  and  the  obstruction  in  the  channel  unit- 
ing Lakes  Huron  and  Erie  known  as  the  St.  Clair  flats. 

The  St.  Clair  flats  were  deepened  somewhat  just 
prior  to  the  Civil  War,  and  in  1862  the  state  of  New 
York  completed  its  enlargement  of  the  Erie  Canal. 
At  once  lake  vessels  were  built  of  larger  dimensions. 
In  1856  the  largest  vessel  afloat  on  the  Great  Lakes 
had  a  grain  capacity  of  not  more  than  33,000  bushels.^ 
In  1873  it  was  not  at  all  unusual  for  a  steam  barge 
to  clear  from  Milwaukee  or  Chicago  with  from  55,000 
to  60,000  bushels  of  wheat  in  her  hold  and  like 
amounts  in  the  holds  of  one  or  two  tows.-  In  1858 
the  largest  propeller  entering  Chicago  was  of  1,223 
tons  burden;  in  1873  there  were  eight  propellers  of 
between  1,400  and  1,600  tons  burden  plying  the 
Great    Lakes. ^       Unfortunately    the    ability    of    the 

it  difficult  to  determine  the  rapidity  wdth  which  towing  developed  and 
sailing  declined. 

1  R.  G.  Plumb,  History  of  Navigation  on  the  Great  Lakes  (Hearings  be- 
fore U.  S.  House  Committee  on  Railways  and  Canals,  Washington,  1911), 
25;  Manitowoc  Pilot,  Feb.  17,  1910. 

2  Buffalo  Board  of  Trade,  Report,  1873,  41-42;  Milwaukee  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  Report,  1873,  13-14. 

•^  Chicago  Board  of  Trade,  Report,  1858,  40-43;  BuiTalo  Board  of  Trade, 
Report,  1873,  40-43. 


LAKE  COMMERCE  379 

Federal  government  after  the  Civil  War  to  under- 
take extensive  harbor  and  channel  improvements 
was  limited  by  its  heavy  financial  obligations.  Cor- 
respondingly the  increase  in  the  tonnage  of  lake 
vessels  was  checked. 

Nearly  all  the  vessels  plying  the  Great  Lakes  during 
this  period  were  wooden.  A  few  were  constructed  of 
iron,  the  first  merchant  vessel  of  the  latter  type  having 
been  launched  in  Canadian  waters  as  early  as  1845. 
During  the  sixties  and  early  seventies  a  limited  num- 
ber of  excellent  ships  of  iron  construction  were  built. 
In  all,  however,  probably  not  more  than  two  score 
ever  sailed  the  lakes.  They  are  interesting  chiefly  as 
representing  the  transition  from  the  old-time  wooden 
craft  to  the  modern  steel  leviathans  of  our  inland 
seas. 

Almost  without  exception  in  1860  steamers  and 
propellers  on  the  Great  Lakes  burned  wood  for  fuel. 
The  same  was  true,  also,  of  the  Mississippi  River 
steamboats  and  of  the  railroads  of  the  Northwest. 
Manitowoc  on  the  Wisconsin  shore  of  Lake  Michigan 
was  a  favorite  "wooding  up"  point  for  vessels  run- 
ning between  Milwaukee,  Chicago,  and  BufTalo. 
Wood,  however,  though  cheap  and  abundant,  was 
cumbersome  to  handle,  and  in  the  early  sixties  pro- 
pellers began  to  install  boilers  designed  for  the  con- 
sumption of  coal.  It  was  an  important  advance^ 
which  during  the  following  decades  found  gradual 
acceptance  among  the  steam-driven  vessels  of  the 
northern  waterways. 

No  such  concentration  of  ownership  marked  the 
vessel  interests  of  the  Great  Lakes  as  developed 
during  the  sixties  in  the  steamboat  industry  of  the 


380  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Mississippi  River.  Centralization  on  the  lakes  was 
favored  neither  by  natural  nor  artificial  conditions. 
Sailing  vessels  were  usually  owned  individually, 
frequently  by  the  captains  that  commanded  them. 
Steam-driven  vessels  were  more  likely  to  be  owned 
by  companies,  for  they  represented  larger  invest- 
ments of  capital.  The  panic  of  1857  forced  the  con- 
solidation of  some  of  the  weaker  propeller  organiza- 
tions, and  the  stronger  ones  increased  largely  the 
number  of  boats  that  they  operated.  During  the 
sixties,  however,  new  companies  were  again  estab- 
lished, as  steam  craft  came  more  and  more  into  favor.^ 

The  regularity  with  which  propellers  were  able  to 
make  their  runs  encouraged  organizing  them  into 
lines.  During  the  later  fifties  and  sixties  these  fell 
almost  without  exception  into  the  hands  of  the 
eastern  railroads  that  were  competing  with  the  Erie 
and  the  Welland  canals.  It  became  the  practice  for 
propeller  lines  to  deliver  exclusively  to  their  affiliated 
railroads  whatever  cargoes  they  carried  destined  for 
the  seaboard.^  In  return  they  were  given  all  the 
westward-bound  traffic  which  their  associated  rail- 
roads controlled. 

These  arrangements  possessed  all  of  the  advantages 
and  few  of  the  objectionable  features  that  attended 
steamboat  agreements  on  the  Mississippi  River. 
On  the  one  hand  they  produced  regularity  of  service, 
on  the  other  they   were  powerless  to  increase  rates 

1  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Reports,  1860-70. 

*  In  dividing  the  through  rate  from  the  lake  shore  to  the  seaboard  the 
propeller  lines  were  allowed  one-third  and  the  railroads  appropriated  two- 
thirds.  The  propeller  carriage  from  Chicago  or  Milwaukee  to  Buffalo  was 
about  1,000  miles,  that  of  the  railroads  from  Buffalo  to  New  York  was 
423  miles.     Transportation  Routes  to  the  Seaboard,  II,  366. 


LAKE  COMMERCE  381 

owing  to  the  competition  of  sailing  vessels.  By  1873 
hardly  a  propeller  plying  out  of  Milwaukee  or  Chi- 
cago ran  "wild"  as  in  the  earlier  days.^ 

Propeller  companies  usually  sought  out  the  larger 
lake  ports  that  possessed  deep  harbors  for  their 
regular  service,  leaving  the  uncertain  trade  of  the 
smaller  and  less  accessible  ports  to  the  sailing  vessels. 
The  Wisconsin  cities  which  enjoyed  regular  and 
frequent  propeller  service  were  Milwaukee,  Racine, 
Kenosha,  and  Green  Bay.  In  1860  Milwaukee  was 
served  by  five  lines,  in  1867,  by  eleven,  giving  her 
daily,  and  in  some  instances  more  frequent,  connec- 
tion with  the  lower  lake  ports,  the  eastern  shore  of 
Lake  Michigan,  and  also  its  western  shore. ^ 

In  important  marine  centers  like  Chicago,  Buffalo, 
Cleveland,  and  Detroit  local  associations  of  vessel 
owners  and  some  associations  purporting  to  cover 
the  entire  chain  of  lakes  attempted  during  the  sixties 
to  regulate  carrying  conditions,  the  wages  of  seamen, 
and,  to  a  limited  extent,  rates.  Like  the  sailors' 
unions,  however,  they  were  loosely  organized  and, 
on  the  whole,  ineffective.  It  remained  for  a  later 
generation  to  bring  about  concentration  in  the  vessel 
interest  of  the  Great  Lakes. 

During  the  sixties  the  shipping  of  these  northern 
waterways  came  face  to  face  with  the  problem  of 
railroad  competition.  For  a  time  the  same  fate 
appeared  to  await  it  that  had  already  overtaken  the 
steamboats  on  the  Mississippi  River.  The  lake  route, 
however,  had  this  decided  advantage  over  the  river, 

1  Ibid.,  I,  58-59,  66,  II,  220-28. 

2  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  April  25,  1867;  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, Report,  1860,  39-40. 


382  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

that  its  general  direction  was  east  and  west,  coincid- 
ing with  the  trend  of  northern  commerce.  The 
slump  in  its  traffic  which  began  in  the  later  sixties 
proved  to  be  only  temporary.  Since  the  eighties  the 
traffic  of  the  Great  Lakes  has  kept  full  step  with  the 
development  of  the  territory  tributary  to  them. 

The  cheapness  of  water  transportation  afforded 
the  lake  shipping  an  enormous  advantage  in  resisting 
the  aggressions  of  the  overland  carriers.  Fortunately 
this  was  not  neutralized,  as  on  the  Mississippi,  by 
the  operation  of  a  transportation  monopoly.  On  the 
contrary,  competition  on  the  Great  Lakes  was  so 
vigorous  that  rates  were  constantly  changing.  Some- 
times they  fluctuated  with  utmost  violence  from  day 
to  day,  always  a  good  deal  from  year  to  year.  Ordi- 
narily they  were  high  during  the  spring  movement  of 
grain,  fell  materially  during  the  slack  summer  months, 
and  reached  their  climax  during  the  fall,  when  the 
new  crop  was  pressing  to  market. 

How  great  the  changes  sometimes  were  in  a  single 
season  may  be  judged  from  the  experiences  of  186L 
During  the  first  two  weeks  of  navigation  the  rate 
upon  wheat  was  16  cents  per  bushel;  during  the 
summer  months  it  ranged  at  from  5  to  7  cents;  in 
August  it  rose  to  13  or  14  cents;  in  October  it  soared 
to  24  cents;  in  November  it  fell  back  to  between  14 
and  20  cents;  closing  the  season  on  November  25 
at  16  cents. ^  The  graph  shown  on  the  opposite  page 
represents  the  average  wheat  rate  from  Milwaukee 
or  Chicago  to  Buffalo  by  years  from  1857  to  1873.2 

» Id.,  1861,  29-30. 

"^  Lake  rates  from  Milwaukee  to  the  lower  lakes  were  the  same  as  from 
Chicago.  All  rail  rates  to  the  seaboard  were  likewise  the  same  from  Mil- 
waukee and  Chicago. 


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LAKE  COMMERCE  383 

It  indicates  that  the  general  movement  of  charges 
during  this  period  was  downward,  a  tendency  that 
became  more  marked  after  the  panic  of  1873. 

The  cheapness  of  w^ater  transportation  was  to  some 
extent  offset  on  the  Great  Lakes  by  difTiculties  from 
which  there  was  no  escape.  The  lakes  were  closed  by 
ice  for  more  than  a  third  of  the  year,  during  all  of 
which  time  the  capital  invested  in  vessels  was  forced 
to  lie  idle.  Owing  to  the  necessity  for  rounding  the 
lower  peninsula  of  Michigan,  the  water  route  was 
exceedingly  indirect  and  wasteful.  From  Milwaukee 
to  New  York  by  lake  and  canal  was  a  distance  of 
approximately  1,400  miles;  by  rail  it  was  not  more 
than  1,000  miles.  Transfer  charges  were  a  heavy 
burden.  Wheat  from  interior  Wisconsin  had  to  be 
transferred  twice  on  its  way  to  the  seaboard,  first 
at  Milwaukee  and  again  at  the  lower  lake  ports. 
Owing  to  the  danger  of  shipwreck  on  these  storm- 
tossed  seas  cargoes  had  to  be  insured,  an  expense 
obviated  in  overland  shipments.  Finally,  lake  vessels 
obtained  full  cargoes  only  one  way.  Westward  they 
were  obliged  to  travel  either  very  light  or  with 
freights  that  little  more  than  paid  the  cost  of  trans- 
portation. The  competing  trunk  lines,  to  be  sure, 
were  confronted  with  the  same  difficulty,  for  the 
imports  of  the  West  never  equalled  in  bulk  the 
exports.  They  were  favored,  however,  with  a  con- 
siderable local  westward  traffic  that  the  boats  entirely 
lacked. 

The  overland  carriers  on  their  part  labored  under 
numerous  disadvantages.  The  chief  of  these,  prior 
to  the  war,  was  lack  of  organization.  The  roads  had 
originally  been  built  as  short,   local  lines,   isolated 


384  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

and  unconnected,  with  tracks,  even,  of  different 
gauges.  The  traveler  from  New  York  to  Chicago  was 
subjected  to  the  vexation  and  delay  of  constantly 
changing  trains.  Freight  suffered,  in  addition,  the 
expense,  loss  of  time,  and  often  breakage  that  at- 
tended frequent  transshipment.  Upon  the  carrying 
of  bulky  commodities  this  obstacle  placed  a  complete 
ban. 

However,  a  rapid  improvement  in  this  respect  was 
secured  during  the  fifties  and  early  sixties  as  the 
result  of  a  wave  of  consolidation  similar  to  that 
which  later  passed  over  Wisconsin.^  Lines  were 
united,  others  were  purchased  or  leased,  and  new 
links  and  extensions  built,  until  out  of  the  maze  of 
isolated  trackage  in  this  region  there  emerged  great 
trunk  railroads  stretching  half  way  across  the  conti- 
nent. 

Even  more  important  was  the  development  during 
the  middle  sixties  of  "through  freight"  or  "fast 
freight"  companies.  The  latter  were  of  several 
varieties.^  One  feature,  however,  was  common  to 
all.  They  all  owned  large  numbers  of  freight  cars, 
distinguished  from  common  cars  by  color  and  general 
appearance,  which  they  contracted  with  railroad 
companies  in  every  part  of  the  country  to  send 
"through"  from  shipper  to  consignee.  A  single  fast 
freight  line,  the  Star-Union,  whose  advertisements 
appeared  in  Wisconsin  papers  early  in  1865,  owned 
or  controlled  "nearly  a  thousand  new  cars  so  con- 
structed as  to  Run  Through  between  Eastern  and 
Western  Cities  Without  Transfer."    It  guaranteed  to 

1  Fite,  Social  and  Industrial  Conditions,  159-62. 
*  Transportation  Routes  to  the  Seaboard,  I  and  II. 


LAKE  COMMERCE  385 

have  its  cars  carried  from  Chicago  to  Philadelphia 
in  six  days,  to  New  York  in  seven,  to  Boston  in  eight, 
and  for  every  day's  delay  after  contract  time  it  allowed 
a  forfeit  of  5  cents  per  hundred  weight  of  freight.^ 

Early  in  1867  there  appeared  in  the  Milwaukee 
press  advertisements  of  four  such  lines,  the  Red, 
Star-Union,  Empire,  and  Diamond,  all  operating  in 
connection  with  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  Rail- 
way. "Milwaukee  shippers,"  ran  the  advertisement, 
"can  load  their  property  into  the  cars  of  any  of  the 
above  named  lines  at  the  freight  depot  of  the  Chicago 
&  Northwestern  Railway  in  this  city,  lock  the  car, 
and  have  the  property  promptly  forwarded  to  their 
correspondents  without  change  of  car."^ 

Along  with  these  improvements  in  organization 
went  swift  improvement  in  the  physical  equipment 
of  the  railroads,  particularly  the  substitution  of  steel 
for  iron  in  rails,  double  tracking,  standardization  of 
gauges,  increase  in  the  size  and  power  of  locomotives, 
betterments  of  bridges  and  roadbed,  and  improve- 
ments in  terminal  facilities.^ 

Speed,  safety,  and  directness  of  shipment,  the 
rewards  of  such  improvements,  soon  won  from  the 
lake  carriers  not  only  their  profitable  passenger 
trafTic,  but  a  considerable  part  of  that  class  of  freight 
known  as  general  merchandise.  Not  content  with 
these  considerable  conquests,  however,  during  the 
middle  sixties  the  trunk  lines  set  out  to  capture  the 
remaining  heavy  freight.^    They  found  their  oppor- 

1  Wis.  State  Jour.,  Feb.  13,  1865. 

2  Milwaukee  Daily  Wis.,  April  18, 1867;  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Aug.  23, 1866. 
'  Transportation  Routes  to  the  Seaboard,  I,  27-28. 

^Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Reports,  1860-73;  Transportation 
Routes  to  the  Seaboard,  I,  app.,  28. 

25 


386  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

tunity  to  do  this  in  the  unusually  high  water-charges 
prevailing  in  1866. 

Their  first  important  prize  was  flour.  Of  the  total 
shipments  from  Milwaukee  in  1866  more  than  a  third 
went  eastward  by  rail.  By  1873  the  proportion  had 
grown  to  more  than  five-ninths,^  a  gain  that  the  lake 
carriers  were  never  able  permanently  to  win  back. 

Corn  followed  a  few  years  after  flour.  In  1869  the 
New  York  legislature  was  informed  that  "nearly  two 
million  bushels  of  grain  [chiefly  corn]  per  month  for 
the  past  six  months  had  been  carried  by  railroad 
from  the  lake  cities  to  all  the  minor  markets  in  the 
country,  that  although  railroads  had  begun  carrying 
grain  long  distances  less  than  two  years  before,  and 
then  only  in  winter,  they  now  continued  to  carry 
it  to  their  utmost  capacity  even  after  the  lakes  and 
canals  were  open  to  navigation,  and  that  as  a  con- 
sequence, our  lake  marine,  although  they  offered 
charters  at  rates  barely  covering  expenses,  were 
lying  idle  at  our  docks. "^ 

Wheat,  too,  at  length  succumbed  to  the  entice- 
ments of  the  railroads.  As  the  result  of  a  season  of 
high  lake  charges  in  1872,  similar  to  that  of  1866, 
nearly  a  million  bushels  of  the  11,570,000  shipped 
from  Milwaukee  were  carried  to  the  seaboard  by 
rail.^  Since  1872  overland  carriers  have  never  ceased 
to  be  formidable  competitors  for  the  grain  trade  of 
the  Northwest. 

Shipping  centers  both  on  the  upper  and  lower  lakes 
were  gravely  menaced  by  this  diversion.     The  pros- 

1  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1866,  11;  id.,  1873,  39. 

^  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  May  17,  1869. 

3  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Report,  1872,  36. 


LAKE  COMMERCE  387 

perity  of  Milwaukee,  in  particular,  was  at  stake. 
So  long  as  the  Great  Lakes  remained  the  carriers  for 
her  agricultural  hinterland  large  quantities  of  wheat 
were  forced  to  pass  into  her  elevators  for  storage  and 
transfer.  Once  in  the  city,  the  grain  could  be  handled 
by  her  merchants,  ground  by  her  millers,  and  for- 
warded by  her  shipping  interests.  As  soon,  however, 
as  the  railroads  took  upon  themselves  the  carrying 
of  this  staple  to  the  interior  of  New  England  and 
New  York,  as  soon  as  direct  communication  was  es- 
tablished between  western  harvest  fields  and  eastern 
consumers,  the  Badger  metropolis,  like  other  lake- 
shore  shipping  centers,  was  eliminated  from  its 
profitable  middleman  position. 

Chicago  on  account  of  her  commanding  railroad 
position  was  less  likely  to  be  adversely  affected  by 
such  a  change  than  Milwaukee.  Buffalo,  which  dur- 
ing the  sixties  was  accustomed  to  receive  from  one- 
half  to  three-fourths  of  all  the  wheat  shipped  from 
Milwaukee,  as  well  as  large  portions  of  the  grain  and 
flour  trade  of  Chicago, ^  was  seriously  endangered. 
Detroit,  Oswego,  Kingston,  and  the  lower  lake  ports 
of  Canada,  which  shared  to  a  less  extent  in  the  trade 
of  Milwaukee  and  Chicago,  were  likewise  imperiled. 

These  ports  took  early  and  vigorous  steps  to  guard 
the  water  route  against  the  aggressions  of  the  rail- 
roads. They  united  in  the  spring  of  1869  in  calling 
together  at  Chicago  a  convention  of  the  boards  of 
trade  of  all  the  important  shipping  centers  on  the 
Great  Lakes. ^     The  program  which  they  there  out- 

i  Reports  of  the  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  of  the  Chicago 
Board  of  Trade  for  the  years  1860-70. 
2  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  May  17,  1869. 


388  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

lined  was  to  cut  the  cost  of  water  transportation 
"so  low  as  not  only  to  defy  [railroad]  competition 
in  summer,  but  low  enough  to  induce  the  storing  of 
grain  at  receiving  points  in  the  winter,  with  a  view 
to  cheap  transportation  on  the  opening  of  navigation 
in  the  spring." 

They  did  not  expect  to  do  this  by  reductions  in  lake 
charges  which  were  already  low,  but  rather  by  savings 
in  the  terminal  expenses  of  the  shipping  and  receiving 
ports.  They  hoped  materially  to  reduce  the  transfer 
charges  of  Milwaukee  and  Chicago,  which  on  wheat 
were  still  the  same  as  before  the  war,  2  cents  a  bushel.^ 
They  hoped  also  to  cut  the  cost  of  marine  insurance 
which  on  the  value  of  grain  cargoes  averaged  four- 
tenths  of  1  per  cent. 2  In  these  expectations  they  were 
disappointed. 

They  succeeded,  however,  in  securing  reductions 
in  transfer  charges  at  Buffalo,  Oswego,  and  Toledo, 
amounting  to  from  50  to  75  per  cent.^  They  were 
unexpectedly  successful  in  securing  from  the  railroad 
companies  running  between  the  lake  shore  and  the 
Mississippi  River  a  cut  of  one-half  in  rates  on  wheat 
and  flour."*    Their  greatest  victory  came  to  them  in 

^  Ibid.;  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Record  Book  B,  June  23, 
1869;  Chicago  Tribune,  April  28,  1869.  The  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce Reports  after  1862  print  besides  transfer  charges  the  customary 
commission  rates  for  buying  and  selling  grain  and  costs  of  inspection. 

2  Buffalo  Board  of  Trade,  Report,  1869,  23. 

3  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Record  Book  B,  June  23,  1869. 
See  also  Buffalo  Board  of  Trade,  Report,  1869,  41 ;  Supplementary  Report, 
1869,  43. 

*  This  triumph,  which  temporarily  brought  transportation  charges 
between  river  and  lake  to  the  level  of  1860,  was  ostensibly  a  concession 
to  the  lake  ports.  In  reality  it  was  a  recognition  of  hard  times  in  the  North- 
west, and  an  answer  to  the  competitive  menace  of  barge  transportation 
on  the  Mississippi.    See  ante,  chap,  xiv;  see  also  Milwaukee  Chamber  of 


LAKE  COMMERCE  339 

1870  when  the  state  of  New  York  reduced  the  wheat 
tolls  on  the  Erie  Canal  from  6  to  3  cents  a  bushel.^ 

Despite  these  efforts  the  eastern  trunk  railroads 
continued  their  inroads  upon  the  lake  commerce. 
Each  reduction  in  lake-carrying  rates  they  met  in 
kind.  Their  charges  were  never  quite  as  low  as  those 
of  their  competitors,  but  the  difference  was  sufficiently 
compensated  for  by  the  superior  attraction  of  over- 
land transportation.  Eventually,  in  the  middle 
seventies,  a  state  of  equilibrium  between  the  rival 
routes  was  established,  after  which  they  continued 
their  struggle  upon  substantially  even  terms. 

For  the  Northwest  it  was  fortunate  that  the  water 
route  was  thus  able  to  reassert  itself.     Unlike  the 
Mississippi  River,  it  afforded  a  constant  regulative 
influence  upon  overland  carriers.     How  effective  its 
competition    was,    the    railroads    themselves    made 
clear.     Uniformly,  year  after  year,  they  raised  their 
rates  a  third  or  two-thirds  as  soon  as  ice  closed  the 
lake  channels.     With  the  same  regularity  they  re- 
turned to  the  competitive  basis  as  soon  as  navigation 
was  resumed  in  the  spring.    So  consistently  was  this 
process  repeated  that  shippers  came  to  take  as  a 
matter  of  course  the  wide  differences  between  winter 
and  summer  rail  rates. 

Another  tribute  to  the  Great  Lakes  route  was  the 
fact  that  almost  without  exception  the  eastern  rail- 
roads competing  with  it  charged  lower  rates  than  the 
roads  west  of  Lake  Michigan.   To  be  sure,  the  nature 

f^^'fioT"^'  ^ff''/  ^""^  ^'  ^"""^  ^^'  ^^^^'  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  May  20. 
1901,' 3^-37  ''^'  ^^^  ^^'  ^^^^'  ^'''''''PP'  ^"'^^  Com.  Report, 

v'?«7^.^*i«^°^'^  ""^  ^'^^^'  ^'P'"^'  ^^^^'  ^-9'  68;  Supplement,  1869.  21; 
la.,  io/o,  lb. 


390  WISCONSIN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

of  the  service  and  the  conditions  of  operation  of^^the 
two  groups  of  overland  carriers  differed.  However, 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  presence  of  water 
competition  in  the  one  case  and  its  absence  in  the  other 
was  an  important,  if  not  the  major,  cause  for  the  un- 
usual differences  in  their  rates.  That  the  Granger  re- 
volt against  railroads  secured  a  slighter  foothold  east 
of  Lake  Michigan  than  west  of  it  was  one  of  the  re- 
sults of  this  situation. 

The  commercial  changes  brought  to  pass  in  the 
period  1857-73  were  fairly  revolutionary  in  character. 
During  these  years  the  mighty  Mississippi  was  virtu- 
ally eliminated  as  an  economic  influence  in  the  affairs 
of  the  region  west  of  Lake  Michigan.  The  proud 
marine  of  the  Great  Lakes  likewise  met  the  shock  of 
railroad  competition,  and  was  compelled  by  the 
overland  carriers  to  relinquish  to  them  the  most 
desirable  portion  of  the  carrying  trade  of  the  North- 
west. 

The  North  succeeded  in  1865  in  restoring  the  Union 
and  destroying  slavery  not  because  its  people  were 
more  patriotic,  its  soldiers  braver,  or  its  generals 
more  skillful  than  those  of  the  South.  Victory  in 
that  great  contest  rested  with  the  side  that  could 
bring  to  bear  the  weight  of  superior  resources.  To  the 
loyal  workers  of  the  North,  who  manned  the  ships  of 
commerce,  cultivated  the  fields,  and  turned  the  wheels 
of  industry  was  due  the  happy  outcome  of  the  con- 
flict quite  as  much  as  to  the  fighting  armies.  Wis- 
consin, as  we  have  seen  in  this  volume,  did  her  share 
in  providing  the  government  with  the  sinews  of  war. 
Her  industries  vied  with  her  soldiery  in  upholding 
the  arm  of  President  Lincoln.    Not  only  were  these 


LAKE  COMMERCE  391 

industries  more  productive  than  ever  before,  but 
they  were  more  diverse  and  complex.  With  the 
return  of  peace  the  young  Badger  commonwealth 
was  prepared  to  set  out  upon  a  new  era  of  progress, 
whose  fruits  and  whose  problems  confront  us  today 
in  our  modern  industrialism. 


Index 


Ind 


ex 


Agriculture,  in  Wisconsin,  11,  15- 
57;  education  for,  50-52;  ma- 
chinery for,  52-55,   144-46. 

Allan,  McClellan  &  Company,  co- 
operative firm,  175. 

Allis,  E.  P.,  &  Company,  at  Mil- 
waukee, 144,  181. 

American  Geographical  Society,  Bul- 
letin, 59-60. 

American  Historical  Association,  An- 
nual Report,  247. 

Anthony,  Elliott,  lawyer,  297. 

Antimonopoly  revolt,  preliminary 
agitation,  301-3;  movement,  308- 
28,  330,  355,  359. 

Appleton,  forest  fires  near,  103; 
labor  unions  at,  174;  manufac- 
tures, 128,  134,  147;  oil  boom, 
118;  Crescent,  61,  121,  155,  215, 
234. 
Appleton's  Cyclopaedia  of  American 

Biography,  134,  156. 
Army.     See  Troops. 
Atkins,    Steele   &   White,    manufac- 
turers, 170. 
Atlantic  Monthly,  317. 

Badger  State  Building  Association, 

177. 
Bailey,   Col.  Joseph,  on  Red  River 

expedition,  83. 
Banking,  affected  by  secession,   17- 

18;  during  the  Civil  War  decade, 

187-219.     See  also  Currency. 


Bankruptcy,   in  Wisconsin,   222-25- 
Baraboo,  Republic,  39,  41-42. 
Barges,     on    the    Mississippi,     148, 
349-52,  360-62,  388;  Great  Lakes, 
377. 
Barley,  yield  for  1860  to  1865,  19. 
Barron  County,  74. 
Bashford,  Coles,  governor,  282. 
Bayfield,  railway  to,  281,  283-84. 
Bay  View,  lodge  at,  174,  178. 
Beach,   Charles  R.,  promotes  dairy 

interests,  26. 
Beaver  Dam,  manufactures  at,  145; 
freight  rates  from,  322;  Argus,  247, 
249. 
Beef  Slough  Manufacturing,  Booming 
Log    Driving    &    Transportation 
Company,  92-94. 
Beef  Slough  War,  91-95. 
Beet  sugar,  in  Wisconsin,  33-34. 
Belgians,  in  Wisconsin,  55,  76. 
Beloit,  manufactures  at,  144;  banking 

in,  196. 
Beloit    &    Madison    Railroad,    pur- 
chased, 297. 
Bennett,    Joseph,    labor    organizer, 

174. 
Berlin,  farm  mortgage  foreclosure  at, 
262-63;  railway  to,  284;  Courant, 
254,  262-63. 
Berthold     &    Jennings,     St.     Louis 

merchants,  64. 
Best,  Philip,  brewer,  152,  154. 


395 


396 


INDEX 


Black  River,  lumbering  on,  60,  64- 
66,  90-91,  95,  110,  221;  forest 
fires,  102;  copper,  121. 

Black  River  Falls,  growth,  76; 
sawmills  at,  95,  109-10;  smelting 
at,  141;  labor  union  convention  at, 
183,  185. 

Black  River  Improvement  Asso- 
ciation, 95. 

Blacksmiths'  and  Machinists'  Union, 
163,  174,  178. 

Blake,  W.  P.,  Reports  of  the  United 
States  Commissioners  to  the  Paris 
Exposition  of  1867,  155. 

Blatz,  Valentine,  brewer,  152. 

Blount,  William,  on  free  navigation 
of  Mississippi,  271. 

Blunt  V.  Walker,  251,  260. 

Board  of  Lake  Underwriters,  Marine 
Register,  373. 

Bogg  &  Fry,  St.  Louis  merchants,  64. 

Boilermakers'  Union,  182. 

Booms,  for  logging  operations,  69. 

Boston  (Mass.),  a  market,  363,  385. 

Bothwell  News  Letter,   120. 

Bradley  &  Metcalf,  manufacturers, 
149,  170-71. 

Brandon,  dairymen's  association  at, 
26;  Times,  26. 

Brauer,  Lydia  M.,  acknowledgments 
to,  10. 

Breweries,  in  Wisconsin,  37,  123, 
151-55. 

Brick,  manufacture  of,  122-23. 

Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Engin- 
eers, 163. 

Brown  County,  48;  shingle  industry 
in,  78;  hardwood  manufacturers, 
79;  forest  fires,  102-3. 

Brunnotto,  August  F.,  labor  organ- 
izer, 184. 

Buffalo  (N.  Y.),  as  a  lake  port,  141, 
317-18,  367,  369,  377,  379-80,  387- 
88;  associations  of  vessel  owners 
at,  381;  Board  of  Trade  Report, 
369,  373,  378,  388-89. 


Buffalo  County,  48;  History,  355. 
Burlington   (Iowa),  lumber  market, 

85;  Saturday  Evening  Post,  73,  84, 

346,  348. 
"Burlington,"  river  steamboat,  348. 
Butler,  A.  R.  R.,  assemblyman,  180. 
Butler,  J.  D.,  "Alexander  Mitchell, 

The  Financier,"  298. 
Butter,  exported,  22;  factories  for, 

22-23;  amount  produced,  24.    See 

also  Dairying. 

Cabinetmakers'  Union,  182. 

Cairo  (111.),  blockade  at,  272. 

California,  emigration  to,  51;  gold  in, 
112. 

Callanan  v.  Judd,  254. 

Calumet  County,  48. 

Camden  &  Amboy  Railroad,  303. 

Camp  Randall,  in  war  time,  50. 

Carpenter,  Matt  H.,  305;  address, 
336. 

Carpenters'  and  Housebuilders'  Co- 
operative Company,  177. 

Carpenters'  and  Joiners'  Building  As- 
sociation, 177. 

Carpenters'  and  Joiners'  Union,  163, 
178. 

Cary,  J.  W.,  Organization  and  History 
of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St. 
Paul  Railway  Company,  290,  295 
302. 

Case,  J.  I.,  manufacturer,  145-46. 

Chamberlin,  T.  C,  Geology  of  Wis- 
consin, 49,  113,  142. 

Champion  lode,  in  lead  mines,  113. 

Cheese,  manufacture  of,  22-29;  fac- 
tories for,  23;  kinds,  24,  28;  prices, 
28.    See  also  Dairying. 

Chicago  (111.),  a  market,  27,  29,  61- 
62,  77,  80-81,  85,  88,  116,  130, 
311,  315,  318,  323;  lake  port,  363- 
69,  378-81;  railway  center,  274, 
276,  284,  302-3,  313.  384-88;  bank- 
ing center,  194-95;  rivalry  with, 
221,  302,  363-65;  packing  at,  151, 


INDEX 


397 


Chicago — Continued. 
364;  speculation,  119;  great  fire, 
63, 155;  convention,  387-89;  Board 
of  Trade,  323;  Reports,  61-64,  80- 
81,  129,  318-19,  373-74,  378,  387; 
Mercantile  Association,  323;  Post, 
299;  Republican,  167;  Times,  26, 
312;  Tribune,  20,  77,  206,  296,  298, 
312,  314,  319,  324,  355,  371,  388; 
Workingman's  Advocate,  182-83. 

Chicago  &  Milwaukee  Railroad,  pur- 
chased, 297,  300. 

Chicago  &  Northwestern  Railroad, 
150;  president,  298,  334;  a  lumber 
carrier,  80,  87-88;  forest  fires  on 
line,  103;  car  works,  147;  extension, 
276,  278;  land  grant,  281;  consoli- 
dation, 289,  296-98,  300-3,  306, 
333-34;  freight  lines,  385;  History, 
296;  Reports,  296-97,  334,  366. 

Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Rail- 
road. See  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul 
Railroad. 

Chicago,  St.  Paul  &  Fond  du  Lac 
Railroad,  bankruptcy,  296. 

Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  & 
Omaha  Railroad,  land  grant,  283. 

Child  labor,  in  Wisconsin,  181. 

Chippewa,  Herald,  68,  71,  75,  84, 
286;  Union  and  Times,  72,  74,  94. 

Chippewa  County,  48. 

Chippewa  Dells  controversy,  96-99. 

Chippewa  Falls,  growth,  76;  saw- 
mills at,  72;  dells  controversy,  97- 
99. 

Chippewa  River,  lumbering  on,  60, 
64-66,  68-69,  74,  90-95;  rafting, 
68,  84,  96-99;  mills,  71-72,  87; 
forest  fires,  102;  head  of  naviga- 
tion, 221;  steamboats  on,  354. 

Chippewa  Valley,  History,  69. 

Chisago  County  (Minn.),  315. 

Cigarmakers'  Union,  organized,  162- 
63,  178. 

Cincinnati  (Ohio),  labor  imported 
from,   169;  blockade  affects,  272; 


Chamber  of  Commerce,  Reports, 
272. 

Clark  V.  Farrington,  247,  251,  260. 

Clark  County,  manufacturers  in,  79; 
Advocate,  101. 

Clay,  deposits  of,  122. 

Clemens,  S.  L.,  Life  on  the  Missis- 
sippi, 344,  347. 

Clement,  S.,  manufacturer,  143. 

Cleveland  (Ohio),  iron  market,  116; 
lake  port,  381. 

Clinton,  E.  D.,  stock  agent,  242. 

Coal,  not  found  in  Wisconsin,  111, 
123;  transportation  of,  141,  377; 
for  lake  vessels,  379. 

Cole,  Orsamus,  justice,  258-59. 

Colorado,  emigration  to,  51. 

Columbus,  railway  to,  281. 

Commissioners  of  School  and  Uni- 
versity Lands,  employ  rangers,  105; 
cited,  107;  purchase  state  bonds, 
218;    Report,  105,  107-8. 

Commons,  John  R.,  acknowledg- 
ments to,  158;  History  of  the  Ameri- 
can Labor  Movement,  162,  184. 

Conard,  H.  L.,  History  of  Milwaukee, 
152,  154,  195,  199-200,  204,  206. 

Confederacy,  relation  of  foreign  na- 
tions to,  16;  closes  the  Mississippi, 
271-72. 

Congress.  See  United  States  Con- 
gress. 

Connecticut,  tobacco  raising  in,  36- 
37. 

Cooperative  Cigar  Manufacturing 
Company,  176. 

Cooperative  enterprises,  174-78,  360. 

Coopers'  Union,  strike,  169,  172-74, 
182-83. 

Copper,  mining  in  Wisconsin,  120-22. 

Copper  Creek  mine,  121. 

Corn,  yield  for  1860  to  1865,  19; 
shipment  of,  364,  386. 

Cornell  v.  Hichens,  251. 

Cothren,  M.  M.,  candidate  for 
justice,  260-61. 


398 


INDEX 


Cotton,  importance  to  Confederacy, 
16;  substitutes  for,  20,  34;  ma- 
chinery, 35. 

Counterfeit  money,  230-31.  See  also 
Currency. 

Cranberries,  as  a  product,  47. 

Crawford  County,  oil  speculation  in, 
118. 

Creameries.    See  Butter. 

Currency,  decline  in  value,  17-18, 
232;  inflation  of,  159,  187-208, 
225,  308;  bank  issues,  212-13,  217- 
19,  229-31;  federal,  212-13,  215, 
231-32;  rates  of  exchange,  229; 
fractional,  232-34.  See  also  Bank- 
ing. 

Custom  Shoemakers'  Union,  163. 

Custom  Tailors'  Unions,  organized, 
163,  178;  representative,  185;  co- 
operative enterprise,  177. 

Dakota,  railroads  in,  295. 

Dairying,  beginnings  of,  22-30. 

Dairymen's  associations,  22,  26-30. 

Dane  County,  agricultural  products, 
36. 

Daniells,  W.  W.,  cited,  45. 

Daniels,  Newell,  labor  organizer, 
171-72. 

Davenport  (Iowa),  a  lumber  market, 
85. 

Davidson,  Capt.  W.  F.,  steamboat 
owner,  320-21,  325-26,  354-55; 
portrait,  354. 

De  Land,  A.  D.,  promotes  dairy  in- 
terests, 26. 

Democrats,  candidate  for  governor, 
256;  for  justice,  259-60. 

Densmore,  James,  manufacturer,  157. 

De  Pere,  sawmill  at,  60;  manufac- 
tures. 128,  147-48. 

Depew,  C.  M.,  One  Hundred  Years 
of  American  Commerce,  139. 

Detroit,  capitalists  from,  142;  a  lake 
port,  387;  Board  of  Trade  Reports, 
374. 


Dewey,  D.  R.,  Financial  History  of 
the  United  States,  230. 

Diamond  freight  line,  385. 

"Diamond  Jo"  steamboat  line,  344, 
351,  357. 

Distilleries,  at  Milwaukee,  153. 

Dixon,  Justice  L.  S.,  reelection,  259- 
61. 

Dodge  County,  iron  in,  116,  141-42; 
negro  laborers,  56;  Citizen,  38,  167; 
History,  45,  60,  117,  146,  207. 

Dondlinger,  P.  T.,  The  Book  of 
Wheat,  139. 

Door  County,  48;  forest  fires  in,  103. 

Dopp,  Mary,  "Geographical  Influ- 
ences in  the  Development  of  Wis- 
consin," 59. 

Doty's  Island,  railway  to,  284-85. 

Douglas  County,  copper  in,  120-22. 

Downer,  Judge  Jason,  cited,  295. 

Dubuque  (Iowa),  lumber  market,  75, 
85;  competition  with,  221;  river 
port,  314,  349-50;  convention  at, 
319;  lead  mines,  357. 

Duluth  (Minn.),  lake  port,  361. 

Dun,  R.  G.,  &  Company,  Annual  Cir- 
cular, 222. 

Dunleith  (111.),  railroad  center,  311- 
12,  354,  359. 

Dunn  County,  48,  74. 

Durant,  E.  W.,  "Lumbering  and 
Steamboating  on  the  St.  Croix 
River,"  84. 

Eagle  Rapids  Flooding  Dam,  built, 
97. 

Eau  Claire,  charter,  99;  growth,  76; 
lumbermen,  69,  92,  109;  dells  con- 
troversy, 97-99;  trade  center,  221; 
banking,  188,  195;  Free  Press,  68, 
75,  94-95,  102,  327,  337. 

Eau  Claire  County,  48;  lumber  war 
in,  94. 

Edgar,  W.  C,  The  Story  of  a  Grain 
of  Wheat,  139. 

Edgerton,  tobacco  center,  37. 


INDEX 


399 


Edison,  Thomas  A.,  inventor,  156. 

Education,  in  agriculture,  50-52. 

Eight-Hour  law  enacted,  181. 

Eight-Hour  League,  179. 

Elevators,  for  grain  storage,  351, 
365-71. 

Elgin  (111.),  creamery  at,  24. 

Emancipation  Proclamation,  56. 

Emigration,  from  Wisconsin,  51,  57; 
causes  of,  238.  See  also  Immigra- 
tion. 

Emmet  Well's  Weekly  Hop  Circular, 
39. 

Empire  freight  line,  385. 

Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  137,  156. 

England,  exports  to,  16,  29,58,361; 
foreign  relations,  18,  207. 

Erie  Canal,  importance  of,  272-74; 
transportation  via,  317-18,  349, 
358,  380;  enlarged,  378;  tolls  re- 
duced, 389. 

Esterly,  George,  inventor,  145. 

Evans,  Oliver,  inventor,  134. 

Exports.    See  Transportation. 

Fairchild,  Lucius,  election,  255; 
veto,  98;  proclamation,  104;  mes- 
sages, 57,  180;  signs  bill,  294. 

Falk,  Franz,  brewer,  152. 

Farm  acreage,  increase,  47-48.  See 
also  Agriculture. 

Farm  Mortgages.  See  Railroad 
Farm  Mortgages. 

Farmer,  Silas,  Map  of  Wisconsin  for 
1872,  64,  78. 

Faville,  Stephen,  president  of  North- 
western Dairymen's  Association, 
25;  cited,  26. 

Federal  College  Land  Grant  Act,  51. 

Federal  Industrial  Commission,  158. 

Ferguson,  Benjamin,  candidate  for 
governor,  256. 

Finance.  See  Banking,  and  Currency. 

First  Sauk  County  Farmers'  Associa- 
tion for  the  Fabrication  of  Beet 
Sugar,  34. 


Fish,  Carl  Russell,  acknowledgments 
to,  13. 

Fish  Brothers,  manufacturers,  147. 

Fisher  v.  Otis,  251. 

Fite,  E.  D.,  Social  and  Industrial 
Conditions  in  the  North  During  the 
Civil  War,  13,  16,  162,  212,  230, 
303,  317,  340,  384. 

Flax,  attempts  to  raise,  30,  34-36. 

Flour,  manufacture  of,  129-40;  ship- 
ment, 364,  371-72,  386. 

Flower,  F.  A.,  History  of  Milwaukee, 
152,  154. 

Fobes,  J.  L.,  assemblyman,  164. 

Fond  du  Lac,  growth,  76;  lumbermen 
at,  92,  95;  oil  speculation,  120; 
manufactures,  127,  147;  labor 
union,  172;  railroads  to,  281,  284; 
Saturday  Reporter,  33,  120. 

Fond  du  Lac  (Lake  Superior)  mine, 
121. 

Fond  du  Lac  County,  first  cheese  fac- 
tory in,  23;  first  dairymen's  asso- 
ciation, 26;  sugar-beets,  33. 

Foresters.    See  Rangers. 

Forests,  extent  of,  59-60,  65,  81; 
hardwoods,  78-79;  fires,  63,  66, 
101-4;  lands  entered,  72-73;  specu- 
lation in,  72-76;  trespassers,  104-8; 
extinction  of,  110,  362.  See  also 
Lumbering. 

Fort  Sumter,  bombardment  of,  18, 
195,  232,  311. 

Fox  River  Valley,  immigrants  to, 
24;  timber  in,  59,  78-79;  markets, 
77,  85;  manufactures,  78-79,  142, 
146-47,  167;  copper,  121;  water 
power,  128;  railways,  296. 

Fox-Wisconsin  Canal,  86. 

France,  exports  to,  16,  58. 

Frankfurth,  William,  merchant,  176. 

Freeport  (111.),  railroads  to,  274. 

Freight  rates.  See  Antimonopoly  re- 
volt. Great  Lakes:  rates,  Rail- 
roads: regulation  of  rates. 

Furs,  as  a  product,  47,  357. 


400 


INDEX 


Gale,  George,  Upper  Mississippi, 
344. 

Galena  (111.),  a  river  port,  355;  lead 
mines  near,  357. 

Galena  &  Chicago  Union  Railroad, 
consolidated,  297,  333-34. 

Galena,  Dubuque,  Dunleith  &  Min- 
nesota Packet  Company,  312,  320- 
21,  354. 

Gano,  L.  H.,  speculator,  119. 

Genoa,  railroad  to,  284. 

German  Custom  Shoemakers'  Union, 
171-72. 

Germans,  immigration  of,  52;  raise 
beet  sugar,  33-34;  women  workers, 
55;  shingle  makers,  76;  beer  manu- 
facturers, 151-53;  in  bank  riot, 
199-200. 

Gettysburg,  victory  at,  257. 

Ginseng,  as  a  product,  47. 

Glasgow  (Scotland),  City  Bank,  296. 

Glidden,  Carlos,  inventor,  156. 

Gogebic  Range,  iron  found  in,  116. 

Goodrich,  Joseph,  proposes  railroad 
farm  mortgages,  241-42. 

Gould,  E.  W.,  Fifty  Years  on  the 
Mississippi,  344. 

Grading  system,  in  grain  shipments, 
367-71. 

Grand  Rapids,  growth,  76. 

Granger  movement,  in  Wisconsin,  51, 
270,  307-8,  311,  332,  337-38,  343, 
371,  390. 

Grant  County,  mining  in.  111. 

Great  Lakes,  transportation  on,  317- 
19,  345,  358,  363-91;  ports,  360, 
363-91;  vessels  on,  372-82;  rates 
for  freight,  382-84.  See  also  the 
several  lakes. 

Green  Bay,  lumbering  on,  60,  64, 
66,  72,  77,  79-80,  90,  108,  296; 
forest  fires  on,  103. 

Green  Bay  (city),  growth,  76;  as  a 
lumber  mart,  77-78,  110;  railroad 
center,  80,  150,  278,  296;  shipyard 
at,  148;  labor  union,  172;  banks. 


189,  232-33;  trade  center,  221; 
lake  port,  363,  365,  372,  381;  Ad- 
vocate, 55,  77, 118, 147, 195,  215-16, 
228,  232-34,  356,  367;  Gazette, 
103-4,  298. 

Green  Bay  &  Lake  Pepin  Railroad, 
87,  278. 

Green  County,  cheese  manufacture, 
24-25;  mentioned,  249. 

Greenback  Labor  party,  165. 

Greenbacks.    See  Currency. 

Griffith,  E.  M.,  Report  of  the  State 
Forester  of  Wisconsin,  100. 

Gristmills,  improvements  in,  130-40. 

Grosvenor,  William  P.,  cited,  317. 

Hartford  Home  League,  established, 
245,  247;  cited,  243-45,  247-51, 
256,  258-66,  285,  332-33. 

Harvey,  L.  P.,  secretary  of  state, 
305;  elected  governor,  255-56;  ad- 
dress, 235;  letter  to,  265;  death, 
255. 

Hastings,  S.  D.,  letter,  218;  The 
Specie  and  Currency  Question  and 
the  State  Treasury,  201,  204. 

Hazen,  Chester,  establishes  cheese 
factory,  22-23;  president  of  dairy- 
men's association,  25-26;  portrait, 
22. 

Hegeler,  E.  C,  zinc  smelter,  115. 

Hiestand,  J.  R.,  introduces  tobacco, 
36. 

Hinman,  James,  letter  to,  106. 

Hoard,  W.  D.,  promotes  dairying, 
25,  30;  cited,  23-24. 

Hoard's  Dairyman,  established,  25. 

Hodges,  J.  T.,  New  Bank  Note  Safe- 
guard, 230. 

Homestead  Act,  passed,  46,  48. 

Hops,  raised  in  Wisconsin,  37-43. 

Horey,  Joseph  C,  cited,  183. 

Horicon,  manufactures  at,  145-46. 

Hotchkiss,  G.  W.,  History  of  the  Lum- 
ber and  Forest  Industry  of  the 
Northwest,  64,  71,  88,  95. 


INDEX 


401 


Houston,  Robert,  promotes  dairy  in- 
terests, 26. 

Hudson, 'railroad  to,  295;  river  port, 
315-16,  318,  327,  359;  Star,  57; 
Star  and  Times,  312. 

Hungary,  milling  in,  137-40. 

Hunt,  Washington,  capitalist,  333. 

Hunt's  Merchants'  Magazine,  266-67, 
291,  293. 

Illinois,  dairy  industry,  24,  26; 
wheat  product,  19;  sorghum,  33; 
Mississippi  River  towns,  85,  90; 
coal  in,  115;  financial  depression, 
187;  bonds,  191;  banking,  192,  206, 
229;  trade  with,  220;  railroads  in, 
242,  272,  274,  296,  303,  330,  336, 
358;  antimonopoly,  308,  325. 

Illinois  &  Michigan  Canal,  81,  357. 

Illinois  Central  Railroad,  312,  328. 

Immigration,  foreign,  46-47,  52,  56, 
76,  227;  creates  boom,  60;  to  the 
West,  220,  345,  348;  transport  of, 
376-77;  of  negroes,  56.  See  also 
Emigration. 

Imphee,  imported  to  Wisconsin,  30. 

Indiana,  sorghum  in,  33;  financial 
depression,  187;  bonds,  191. 

Insurance  Act  of  1865,  216,  218. 

Interest  rates,  235-37. 

Internal  improvements,  86,  238-40. 
See  also  Railroads. 

Iowa,  wheat  from,  46,  62,  134,  279, 
302,  312,  364,  371-72;  growth,  48, 
51,  57;  lumber  markets  in,  85; 
sawmills,  90;  railways,  96,  272, 
274,  276,  295;  hogs  from,  150; 
trade  with,  220-21,  344;  land 
claim  associations  in,  246-47,  262; 
antimonopoly,  308,  325;  immi- 
grants to,  345,  348. 

Iowa  County,  mining  in.  111. 

Iron,  in  Wisconsin,  115-16;  manufac- 
ture of,  140-44;  shipment  of,  279; 
in  Michigan,  296;  lake  vessels  built 
of,  379. 


Iron  Moulders'  Union.  See  Mould- 
ers' Union. 

Iron  Ridge,  mining  at,  116,  141-43. 

Ironton,  mining  at,  116;  smelting, 
141. 

Irving,  R.  D.,  "Mineral  Resources," 
117. 

Jackson  County,  48;  manufacturing 
in,  141. 

Jago,  William,  The  Technology  of 
Bread  Making,  136. 

Janesville,  20;  manufactures  in,  127, 
131,  134,  144;  labor  union  at,  172, 
174;  Gazette,  edition,  248;  cited, 
267,  339-40. 

Japan,  orders  Wisconsin  manufac- 
tures, 144. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  policy,  271. 

Jefferson  County,  Dairymen's  As- 
sociation, 26;  Union,  established, 
25;  cited,  26-27,  29-30. 

"John  Rumsey,"  Mississippi  steam- 
boat, 346. 

Jones  Island,  at  Milwaukee,  175. 

Judson,  W.  B.,  "Lumber  Manufac- 
ture," 60. 

Kansas  City  (Mo.),  packing  center, 
151. 

Keep,  Henry,  railroad  president,  298. 

Kennedy,  J.  C,  superintendent  of 
census,  cited,  16. 

Kenosha,  dairy  industry  at,  29;  man- 
ufactures, 127,  147;  labor  union, 
172;  trade  center,  221 ;  railroads  to, 
297;  lake  port,  381. 

Kenosha  County,  cheese  factories, 
23. 

Kenosha,  Rockford  &  Rock  Island 
Railroad,  purchased,  297,  300. 

Kentucky,  bonds,  204. 

Keokuk  (Iowa),  river  port,  272,  345; 
improvement  convention  at,  359. 

Keokuk  Rapids,  in  the  Mississippi, 
345,  351,  359. 


26 


402 


INDEX 


Kessinger,    L.,    History    of    Buffalo 

County,  355. 
Kewaunee  County,  48;  forest  fires  in, 

102-3. 
Kickapoo  Valley,  oil  companies  in, 

118. 
Kilbourn,  Byron,  railroad  promoter, 

256. 
Kilbourn,  hop  shipping  from,  39-40; 

dells  dam  at,  96. 
Kingston  (Ont.),  a  lake  port,  387. 
Kirby,  Abner,  mayor  of  Milwaukee, 

215. 
Klaus,  Anton,  lumberman,  78. 
Knapp,  J.  H.,  lumberman,  75. 
Knapp,  Stout  &  Company,  lumber 

firm,  74-75. 
Knights  of  Labor,  183. 
Knights  of  St.    Crispin,   organized, 

170-72;  cooperative  enterprise,  176- 

77. 
Knowlton,  James  H.,  candidate  for 

justice.  259. 

Labor,  in  the  lumber  industry,  108- 
10;  during  the  Civil  War  period, 
158-86. 

Labor  Reform  Association,  179. 

Labor  Reform  party,  in  Wisconsin, 
184-85. 

La  Croix,  Edward  L.,  inventor,  138- 

Il'39. 

La  Crosse,  growth,  76,  226;  forest 
fires  near,  102;  manufactures  at, 
127,  144,  147;  labor  unions,  163, 
172,  185;  river  port,  11,  221,  224- 
25.  316,  318,  321-22,  327;  banks, 
189;  packet  company,  169;  rail- 
road center,  309,  311-13,  316,  354- 
55,  359;  Democrat,  55-56, 109, 145- 
46,  148,  161,  165,  215,  225-26, 
265,  301,  321,  324,  341,  348,  350, 
355;  Democratic  Journal,  33,  301; 
Republican,  66,  305,  312,  321,  323, 
325,  347,  354-56;  Union,  260. 


La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  Railroad, 
134,  274;  terminal,  224-25;  mort- 
gages for,  243,  253,  262,  267;  land 
grant,  280-81;  corruption  of,  256, 
281-82;  foreclosure  of,  290,  299; 
relation  to  steamboat  traffic,  320, 
354;  freight  carried,  309-10;  Re- 
ports, 310,  366.  See  also  Milwau- 
kee &  St.  Paul  Railroad. 

La  Crosse  &  St.  Paul  Packet  Com- 
pany, 312,  320-21,  325,  348. 

La  Crosse  County,  48. 

Ladoga,  first  cheese  factory  at,  23. 

Ladu,  E.  E.,  Early  and  Late  Mosinee, 
82. 

Lafayette  County,  mining  in.  111. 

Lake  Mills,  dairying  journal  at,  25. 

Lake  Erie,  378. 

Lake  Huron,  378. 

Lake  Michigan,  lumbering  near,  60, 
64,  79;  lumber  rafting  on,  96; 
vessels,  79-80,  88,  344,  381;  manu- 
factures at  ports,  146;  railroads  to, 
274,  278-79,  296,  310,  360.  See 
also  Great  Lakes,  and  Transpor- 
tation. 

Lake  Pepin,  towing  in,  84. 

Lake  St.  Croix,  towing  in,  84;  rail- 
way to,  281,  283. 

Lake  Superior,  forest  fires  near,  101; 
copper,  112,  121;  iron,  115-16, 
142-43,  221,  296;  railroads  to,  281, 
283-85,  299,  326,  361;  transporta- 
tion on,  344.    See  also  Great  Lakes. 

Lake  Superior  &  Mississippi  Rail- 
road, 361. 

Lake  Winnebago,  as  a  reservoir,  128; 
sawmills  on,  90,  95;  cities,  128,  284. 

Land  claim  associations,  246-47,  262. 

Land  grants,  to  railroads,  250,  276, 
278-87,  335;  opposition  to,  285-87. 

Lands.    See  Public  domain. 

Lapham,  Increase  A.,  on  conserva- 
tion, 99. 

La  Salle  (111.),  smelting  at,  115. 

Layton  &  Company,  packers,  151. 


INDEX 


403 


Lead,  mined  in  Wisconsin,  11,  111- 
15;  transportation  of,  357. 

Lead  mining  region,  currency  in,  208; 
railroads  to,  278. 

Lecher,  Henry,  cigarmaker,  176. 

Lewis,  James  T.,  governor  of  Wis- 
consin, 105;  election,  256-57;  letter 
to,  262;  proclamation,  263. 

Libby,  0.  G.,  "Significance  of  the 
Lead  and  Shot  Trade,"  112,  276. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  elected  president, 
17,  61,  193;  call  for  troops,  161; 
upheld,  390. 

Linen  manufacture.     See  Flax. 

Linseed-oil,  manufactured,  35. 

Little  Falls  (N.  Y.),  as  a  cheese 
market,  28. 

Liverpool,  as  a  market,  29,  361. 

London,  as  a  market,  29. 

Louisiana  (province),  purchase,  271. 

Louisiana  (state),  bond  issue,  191-95. 

Louisville  (Ky.),  river  improvement 
convention  at,  359. 

Ludington,  Nelson,  lumberman,  75. 

Ludington  (Mich.),  a  lumber  port, 
96. 

Lumber  industry,  in  Wisconsin,  11, 
59-110;  speculators  in,  50,  66,  72- 
73;  relation  to  railroads,  279. 

Lynn  (Mass.),  shoemaking  at,  170. 

McCoRMiCK,  Cyrus  Hall,  inventor, 

52. 
McGarry,  Edward,  legislator,  339. 
McGregor,  J.  P.,  "Banking  in  Wis- 
consin," 207. 
McGregor  &  Western  Railroad,  built, 

276;  purchased,  295. 
Machinery,  agricultural,  52-54,  144- 

46. 
Machinists.     See  Blacksmiths,   and 

Machinists. 
McKay  sewing  machine,  invented, 

170. 
Madison,  capitol,  226;  legislature  at, 

98,  180,  293;  conventions,  31;  oil 


speculation,  120,  294;  manufac- 
tures, 127,  144-46;  of  agricultural 
machinery,  54,  144-46;  labor 
unions,  162-63,  168;  bank  agent, 
209;  railroads  to,  281-82,  284,  298, 
322;  Argus,  263;  Argus  and  Demo- 
crat, 247;  Democrat,  107;  Patriot, 
338.  See  also  Wisconsin  State 
Journal. 

Madison  &  Portage  Railroad  Com- 
pany V.  Wisconsin,  268. 

Manitowoc,  lumber  mart,  64,  77-78; 
manufactures  at,  127,  148;  wood- 
ing up,  379;  Pilot,  378. 

Manitowoc  County,  48;  forest  fires 
in,  102-3;  History,  150. 

Manufacturing,  in  Wisconsin,  123- 
57. 

Maple  sugar,  as  a  product,  47. 

Marathon  County,  48. 

Marinette,  growth,  76;  railway  to, 
278,  281. 

Marinette  County,  forest  fires  in, 
103. 

Martin,  J.,  letter,  252. 

Martineau  v.  McCoUum,  251. 

Masons'  and  Bricklayers'  Unions, 
163,  177-78,  182,  184. 

Massachusetts,  bank  notes,  230. 

Matthiessen,  F.  W.,  zinc  smelter, 
115. 

Mayville,  smelting  at,  141. 

Melms,  Charles,  brewer,  152. 

Menasha,  manufactures  in,  128,  133, 
146-47. 

Menasha  and  Neenah  Manufacturer, 
133. 

Menominee  (Mich.),  forest  fires  near, 
103. 

Menominee  River,  lumbering  on,  74. 

Menomonie,  lumber  corporation  at, 
74,  92. 

Merrick,  George  B.,  "Joseph  Rey- 
nolds and  the  Diamond  Jo  Line 
Steamers,"  344;  Old  Times  on  the 
Upper  Mississippi,  344,  347,  352; 


404 


INDEX 


Merrick — Continued. 
"Steamboats   and    Steamboatmen 
of   the   Upper    Mississippi,"   346; 
"Western     River    Steamboating," 
344. 
Merrill,  rapids  at,  82. 
Meyer,  B.  H.,  "Early  Railway  Legis- 
lation in  Wisconsin,"  301. 
Meyer,  C.  J.  L.,  manufacturer,  147. 
Meyers,    L.    H.,    railroad   president, 

letter,  265. 
Michigan,  forests  in,  59,  62,  81,  89; 
lumber   interests,    92;   iron   from, 
141;    bonds,    191;    railroads,    276, 
296. 
Miller,  Fred,  brewer,  152. 
Mills,  J.  C,  Our  Inland  Seas,  376. 
Mills.    See  Gristmills,  and  Sawmills. 
Milton,  resident,  241. 
Milwaukee,    population,     124,     158, 
227-28;  memorial  to  Congress,  16; 
exports  agricultural  products,   18, 
21-22;  wheat  market,  46,  130,  311, 
315-18,  322,  327;  lumber  market, 
81,  88;  lead  market,  357;  wholesale 
center,  220-22,  224-26,  228;  rail- 
road center,  53,  62,  274,  276-77, 
284-85,  313,  361;  lake  port,  363- 
91 ;  prices  in,  160-61 ;  banking,  188, 
192,  195,  197-200,  202,  204,  206-7, 
209,  212,  215,  233;  bank  conven- 
tion, 196-97,  204;  bank  riot,  199- 
200,    202;    building    in,    226-27; 
manufacturing,     126-27,     131-33, 
140-44,  147-55,  173-74,  228;  roll- 
ing    mills,     116,     141-43;     brick 
works,  122;  labor  unions,  162-64, 
169,  171-72,  174-78,  182-86;  eight- 
hour   agitation,    179-82;    antimo- 
nopoly  agitation,  301-3,  323;  rival- 
ry   with    Chicago,    11,    221,    302, 
364-65;    Chamber   of    Commerce, 
304,  323;  address  before,  120,  365; 
Record  Books,  314,  388-89;  Reports, 
17,  19-21,  30,  39,  42,  116,  124,  127, 
129-30,  132-34,  137,  141-43,  149- 


51,   154,   160,   193,  204,  222,  224, 
226,  228,  317-19,  365-66,  368,  371- 
74,  378,  380-82,  385-88;  Proceed- 
ings, 321.     Exchange,   18.     Mer- 
chants' Association,  323.     History 
of,  152;  Daily  Life,  301,  305;  Daily 
News,  55,  297-99,  304,  327,  339-40, 
356;  Daily  Union,  established,  176; 
Daily  Wisconsin,  18,  58,  150,  156, 
195,  200,  204,  265-66,  290,  301-2, 
305,   312,   321,   332-33,   336,   366, 
370,  385;  Semi-Weekly  Wisconsin, 
296,    298;    Sentinel,    editor,    248; 
women    employees,    166-67,    175; 
cited,  16,  20,  24,  33,  39,  78,  103-4, 
109,    120,    127,    133,   141,    143-44, 
146-47,    149-50,    152-56,    167-68, 
170,  179-80,  192,  195-202,  204-5, 
207,  210-11,  215-16,  224-25,  233- 
34,    241,    263,    265-67,    273,    290, 
295,  297-98,  301-3,305,312,314- 
16,  321,  323-24,  327,  332-36,  338, 
340,  351,   354-55,   366,   370,   373, 
385-87,  389. 
Milwaukee  &  Beloit  Railroad,  mort- 
gages for,  244. 
Milwaukee  &  Chicago  Railroad,  con- 
solidation, 300. 
Milwaukee     &     Horicon     Railroad, 
mortgages  for,  243,  253,  267;  con- 
solidated, 290,  333. 
Milwaukee  &  Mississippi   Railroad, 
pioneer  company,  241-43,  274;  ad- 
dress to,  264-65;  retires  farm  mort- 
gages,    266-67;     bankrupt,     291; 
freight  carried,  310;  Reports,    241, 
310.       See     also     Milwaukee      & 
Prairie    du    Chien  Railroad. 
Milwaukee    &    Northern    Railroad, 

buUt,  278. 
Milwaukee  &  Prairie  du  Chien  Rail- 
road, connections,  312,  327;  presi- 
dent, 265,  290;  builds  western 
roads,  276;  retires  farm  mortgages, 
266-67;  history  of,  291-95;  con- 
solidation, 290-96,  299,  301,  304, 


INDEX 


405 


334;  Directors'  Proceedings,  292, 
301;  Reports,  54,  265,  276,  291-93, 
301,  310,  331,  366.  See  also  Mil- 
waukee &  St.  Paul  Railroad,  and 
"Prairie  Dog  Corner." 

Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railroad,  151, 
289,  312,  327,  366;  labor  on,  160, 
164;  legislation  against,  253-54; 
sustains  injuries,  265;  builds  west- 
ern extensions,  276,  361;  land 
grants,  282-83;  consolidation,  290- 
96,  298,  300,  302,  304,  306,  333-34; 
rate  war,  328;  Historij,  290,  295, 
302;  Reports,  276,  309-10. 

Milwaukee  &  Superior  Railroad, 
mortgages  for,  243-45. 

Milwaukee  &  Watertown  Railroad, 
retires  farm  mortgages,  266. 

Milwaukee  &  Western  Railroad, 
bankrupt,  290. 

Milwaukee  Boot  and  Shoe  Manufac- 
turing Association,  177. 

Milwaukee  Dry  Dock  Company,  175. 

Milwaukee  Furniture  Manufacturing 
Association,  176. 

Milwaukee  Iron  Company,  141;  in- 
corporators, 142-43. 

Milwaukee  Labor  Reform  Assembly, 
185. 

Milwaukee  Manufacturers'  Associa- 
tion, organized,  127. 

Milwaukee  River,  waterpower,  132; 
floods  in,  133. 

Mineral  Point,  manufactures  at,  114- 
15;  copper  near,  121;  lead  from, 
357. 

Mining,  in  Wisconsin,  111-22,  357. 

Minneapolis  (Minn.),  flour  mills  at, 
138-40. 

Minnesota,  growth,  48-49,  51,  57; 
immigration  to,  221,  345,  348,  356, 
361;  hogs  from,  150;  wheat,  46, 
62,  134,  279,  302,  312,  358,  364, 
371-72;  wool,  21;  forests  in,  59, 
85,  362;  trade  with,  220,  344,  354; 
currency,  229;  railways  in,  96,  272, 


274,  276-78,  286,  291,  295;  anti- 
monopoly  agitation,  308,  323,  325- 
27,  342;  senator,  281;  Historical 
Collections,  84,  314,  320-21,  354, 
356;  Historical  Society  Bulletin, 
156. 

Minnesota  Central  Railroad,  built, 
276. 

Minnesota  River,  steamboats  on, 
354. 

Minnesota  Transportation  Company, 
antimonopoly  line,  326. 

Mississippi  River,  floods  in,  62;  low 
water,  350;  ports  on,  11,  77,  344- 
62;  lumbering,  62,  64,  79;  rafting, 
81-85,  88,  95,  362;  sawmills,  90-92; 
bridged,  96;  shipyard,  147;  free 
navigation  of,  271-73,  324;  block- 
ade, 272,  288,  309,  329,  358,  373; 
railroads  to,  276,  278-79,  296,  298, 
310,  336,  358,  360;  freight  trans- 
portation on,  312-20,  323-24,  344- 
62;  regulator  of  rates,  329;  im- 
provement of  channel,  326,  330, 
359;  Commission  Reports,  360-61. 
See  also  Barges,  and  Steamboats. 

Mississippi  River  Improvement  Con- 
vention Proceedings,  319,  359. 

Mississippi  River  Logging  Company, 
organized,  75,  95. 

Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Associa- 
tion Proceedings,  271,  344,  351, 
357. 

Missouri,  sorghum  in,  33;  Wisconsin 
lumber,  85;  monetary  difTiculties, 
187-88;  bonds,  191-95,  204. 

Mitchell,  Alexander,  capitalist,  143; 
fmancier,  192-93,  199,  201,  218, 
309;  railway  president,  290,  295, 
298-300,  304;  speech,  306;  por- 
trait, 290. 

Molasses.  See  Beet  Sugar,  and  Sorg- 
hum. 

Monroe  County,  48;  oil  discovery  in, 
118. 

Montreal,  a  market,  363. 


406 


INDEX 


Mosinee,  history  of,  82. 
Moulders'  Union,  163,  176,  178. 

National  Banking  Law,  212,  231- 
32. 

National  Brewers'  Association,  154. 

National  Labor  Congress,  184. 

National  Labor  Union,  Wisconsin's 
share  in,  183-84. 

Nebraska,  Wisconsin  lumber  in,  85; 
railroads,  295. 

Neenah,  manufactures  in,   128,  133. 

Negroes,  as  farm  laborers,  56;  deck 
hands,  169. 

Neillsville,  forest  fires  near,  102. 

Nevada,  emigration  to,  51. 

New  Diggings,  mining  district,  113. 

New  England,  imports,  15-16,  387; 
bonds,  191;  bank  notes,  230. 

New  Orleans,  importance  of,  273; 
transportation  via,  324,  326,  357- 
58,  360-61 ;  river  improvement  con- 
vention at,  359;  ocean  port,  373. 

New  York  (city),  a  market,  317-18, 
326,  363,  367,  383-85;  financial 
affairs,  200-1,  209-10,  230,  292-93; 
Produce  Exchange  Beport,  351, 
360;  Stock  Exchange,  292-93; 
Herald,  38,  222-23,  225,  267,  293, 
298,  301,  304;  Times,  244-45,  272, 
334;  Tribune,  244-45,  272,  334; 
World,  266,  373. 

New  York  (state),  dairy  industry,  22, 
27,  29-30;  hop  raising  in,  37-38, 
42;  sends  settlers  to  Wisconsin, 
23-24,  37;  bonds  of,  191;  holds 
farm  mortgages,  252;  transporta- 
tion to,  273,  324,  387;  railroad 
regulation  in,  340;  enlarges  Erie 
Canal,  378;  reduces  tolls,  389; 
legislature,  386. 

New  York  and  De  Pere  Flax  Com- 
pany, 35. 

Nicholson  pavement,  for  city  streets, 
227. 

Noonan,  Josiah  A.,  305. 


North  Carolina,  bond  issue,  191-95, 

North  Wisconsin  Railroad,  land 
grant,  283. 

Northern  Line  Packet  Company,  312, 
348.  354-56. 

Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  projected, 
281. 

Northwest,  food  supply,  influence  of, 
16;  economic  unit,  11;  attitude  to- 
wards secession,  271-73. 

Northwestern  Dairymen's  Associa- 
tion, formed,  26;  Reports,  23-24, 
30. 

Northwestern  Flax  Company,  35. 

Northwestern  Iron  Company,  141. 

Northwestern  Packet  Company,  355, 

Northwestern  Sorgho  Journal,  found- 
ed, 31. 

Northwestern  Union  Packet  Com- 
pany, 169,  347,  355-56. 

Norwegians,  as  tobacco  raisers,  37. 

Nunns,  Annie  A.,  acknowledgments 
to,  10. 

Oatman  v.  Bond,  253. 

Oats,  yield  for  1860  to  1865,  19; 
shipment,  364. 

Obermann,  Jacob,  brewer,  152. 

"Ocean  Wave,"  river  steamboat,  350. 

Oconto,  growth,  76. 

Oconto  County,  beet  sugar  in,  33; 
forest  fires,  103. 

Ogden,  W,  B.,  letter,  296. 

Ohio,  wool  growing  in,  21;  dairying, 
27;  sorghum  raised,  33;  tobacco, 
36;  oil  found  in,  117;  coal  from, 
123;  labor  party  convention,  185; 
railroad  regulation  in,  340. 

Ohio  River,  Confederate  blockade  of, 
272. 

Oil.     See  Petroleum. 

Oil  City,  origin  of  name,  118. 

Omaha  (Nebr.),  railroad  terminus, 
299. 

Orton,  Charles  H.,  Milwaukee  as- 
semblyman, 180. 


INDEX 


407 


Oshkosh,  growth,  76;  manufactures, 
127,  148;  labor  unions,  172,  184; 
strikes,  163;  railroad  center,  80; 
lumber  center,  85-86,  92,  95,  109; 
History  of,  95;  Journal,  74;  North- 
western, 75,  120,  215,  273,  373; 
Times,  356. 

Oswego  (N.  Y.),  lake  port,  367,  387- 
88. 

Outagamie  County,  48;  forest  fires  in, 
103. 

Ozaukee  County,  rioting  in,  265. 

Pabst,  Fred,  brewer,  152. 

Pabst  Brewing  Company,  154-55. 

Palmer,    Henry    L.,    candidate    for 

governor,  256. 
Panics:  1857,   12,   17,  61,   111,   158, 

164.   192-93,   222,   235,   240,   244, 

250,  289,  296,  299,  305,  319,  332, 

372,  380.     1861,  18,  159,  187,  197, 

209,  223,  225.     1865,  215-17,  228. 

1867,  63,  182,  229.     1873,  12,  63. 

65,  229,  383. 
Park,    W.    J.,    History   of  Madison, 

146. 
Parton,   James,    Manual  for  the  In- 
struction of  '"Rings"  Railroad  and 

Political,  297. 
Passes,  on  railroads,  340. 
Patrons  of  Husbandry,  branch,  360. 

See  also  Granger  Movement. 
Peat,  deposits,  121. 
Pennsylvania,  oil  found  in,  117-19; 

coal  from,  123;  iron,  141;  railroad 

regulation  in,  340. 
Pepin  County,  48. 
Perlman,  Selig,  acknowledgments  to, 

158. 
Pernin,  Rev.  P.,   The  Finger  of  God  is 

there!,  104. 
Peshtigo,  fires  at,  66,  104;  growth,  76; 

manufactures  at,  146,  148. 
Petroleum,  speculation  in,  116-20. 
Pfister,  Guido,  tanner,  150. 
Pfister  &  Vogel,  tanners,  149. 


Philadelphia  (Pa.),  shoemaking  at, 
170;  a  market,  363,  385. 

Pierce  County,  48.  360. 

Pillsbury,  C.  A.,  "American  Flour," 
139. 

Pilots,  on  the  Mississippi,  347. 

Pilots'  Benevolent  Association,  347. 

Pine.     See  Forests. 

Plankington,  John,  merchant,  225. 

Plankington  &  Armour,  packers,  151. 

Plumb,  R.  G.,  History  of  Manitowoc 
County,  150;  History  of  Naviga- 
tion on  the  Great  Lakes,  378. 

Point  Bas,  on  the  Wisconsin  River, 
82. 

Polk  County,  48;  merchants  of,  315; 
Press,  312,  324. 

Pomeroy,  Mark  M.,  editor,  165. 

Pomeroy,  Orrin,  introduces  tobacco, 
36. 

Pomeroy,  Ralph,  introduces  tobacco, 
36. 

Pond,  Levi  W.,  lumberman,  69. 

Pooling,  in  railroad  rates,  292,  295, 
310-11. 

Poor,  Henry  V.,  Manual  of  Rail- 
roads of  the  United  States,  275,  334, 
338. 

Pork-packing  industry,  150-51. 

Portage,  labor  unions  in,  163,  172; 
railroad  to,  265,  267,  281-85,  322; 
Register,  256,  290,  333. 

Portage  City  Gas  Light  Company, 
incorporated,  93. 

Portage  County,  48. 

Portage,  Winnebago  &  Lake  Superior 
Railroad.  See  Wisconsin  Central 
Railroad. 

Postage  stamps,  as  fractional  cur- 
rency, 233-34. 

Potosi,  lead  mines,  357. 

Potter,  John  F.  (Bowie  Knife),  in 
Congress,  250. 

Pound,  Thaddeus,  lumberman,  75,97. 

Pound,  Halbert  &  Company,  lumber- 
men, 72. 


408 


INDEX 


"Prairie  Dog  Corner,"  on  New  York 
Stock  Exchange,  292-93,  334. 

Prairie  du  Chien,  a  lumber  market, 
85;  foreclosure  at,  263;  railroad 
center,  310-12,  316,  354,  359;  river 
port,  322;  fur  trade  at,  357; 
Courier,  119,  301,  355. 

Prairie  du  Chien  Railroad.  See  Mil- 
waukee &  Prairie  du  Chien  Rail- 
road. 

Prescott,  D.  C,  inventor,  71. 

Prescott,  lumber  center,  84;  river 
port,  315-16,  321,  324;  Democrat, 
312,  321;  Journal,  316,  324,  350, 
355-56,  389;  Transcript,  312,  321, 
354,  367. 

Prices,  general  advance  of,  160-61, 
174,  225,  308;  decline,  162,  234- 
35;  of  cheese,  28;  hops,  38,  42; 
lead,  113;  lumber,  61-63,  73;  sugar, 
31;  tobacco,  36;  wheat,  17-19,  46, 
316-18,  327,  360;  wool,  20-21; 
zinc,  115.  See  also  Railroads: 
rates,  and  wages. 

Printers.     See  Typographical  Union. 

Propellers,  on  the  Great  Lakes,  375- 
77,  380-81. 

Pryor,  Roger  A.,  challenger  to  a 
duel,  250. 

Public  domain,  granted,  46,  48-50, 
286;  exploited,  73,  235;  timber  tres- 
pass in,  104-8;  opened,  246-47. 
See  also  Land  grants. 

Public  improvements,  226-27. 

QuAiFE,  M.  M.,  acknowledgments  to, 
13. 

Racine,  a  lumber  market,  81;  manu- 
factures in,  127,  145-47,  149-50; 
labor  unions,  163,  172,  174,  181; 
trade  center,  221;  lake  port,  363, 
365,  372,  381;  Advocate,  146,  149- 
50. 

Racine  &  Mississippi  Railroad,  built, 
274;  purchased,  296,  300. 


Rafting  of  lumber,  67-68,  81-85,  95- 
96,  362. 

Railroad  Farm  Mortgages,  238-70, 
285,  287,  322,  332. 

Railroads,  need  for,  239-40;  con- 
struction of,  271-88;  expansion  of, 
62-63,  80-81,  85,  126,  358,  366, 
371;  in  the  pineries,  80,  86-89; 
equipment,  310,  383-85;  consolida- 
tion, 289-307,  322,  333,  384-86; 
exactions  of,  58,  370-71;  revolt 
against,  308-28;  taxation  of,  309; 
regulation  of  rates,  329-43;  passes 
on,  340;  relation  to  steamboat 
trafTic,  313-17,  319-28,  352,  355, 
357-62,  381-90. 

Randall,  Alexander,  governor,  50, 
141,  201,  267;  messages,  30-31,  35, 
189-90,  192,  208,  236,  245-46,  272, 
282;  veto,  97;  approval,  251-52; 
letter  to,  141-42,  202,  252;  blocks 
land  grant,  282. 

Randall,  T.  E.,  History  of  Chippewa 
Valley,  69. 

Rangers,  in  forest  lands,  105-8. 

Rates  for  freight.  See  Antimonopoly 
Revolt,  and  Railroads:  regulation 
of  rates. 

Rebates,  complaints  of,  322-23. 

Reed's  Landing  (Minn.),  lumbering 
at,  75,  84. 

Red  freight  line,  385. 

Red  River  Expedition,  83. 

Red  Wing  (Minn.),  convention  at, 
323;  river  port,  359. 

Refrigerator  cars,  first  employed,  29. 

Reliance  Iron  Works,  144. 

Remington  Typewriter,  157. 

Reply  to  Address  of  Farmers'  General 
Home  League,  241,  245. 

Report  on  the  Disastrous  Effects  of 
the  Destruction  of  Forest  Trees  in 
Wisconsin,  100. 

Report  on  the  Vessels,  Commerce  and 
Trade  of  the  Lakes  and  Erie  Canal, 
373. 


INDEX 


409 


Republicans,  campaign,  256-57;  can- 
didates for  justice,  258-60. 

Rhodes,  J.  I'.,  History  of  the  United 
States,  13,  234. 

Richardson,  George,  printer,  176. 

Ripon,  freight  rates  from,  322. 

Ripon  &  Wolf  River  Railroad,  290. 

Ritchie,  J.  S.,  Wisconsin  and  Its  Re- 
sources, 64,  73. 

River  Improvement  Convention  of 
St.  Louis,  Proceedings,  359. 

Roberts,  J.  A.,  letter,  262. 

Robinson,  Col.  Charles  S.,  editor, 
118. 

Rock  County,  agricultural  products, 
36-37. 

Rock  Island  (111.),  railway  terminus, 
358;  rapids  at,  359. 

Rock  River  Valley,  railway  in,  296. 

Rockford  (111.),  dairymen  organize 
at,  26;  railroad  to,  297. 

Roth,  Filibert,  Forestry  Conditions  of 
Northern  Wisconsin,  59. 

Rowell  &  Company,  manufacturers, 
145. 

Ruby,  James  N.,  labor  organizer, 
184. 

Sage,  Russell,  capitalist,  333. 

St.  Clair  flats,  improvement  of,  378. 

St.  Croix  &  Lake  Superior  Railroad, 
land  grant,  107,  283. 

St.  Croix  County,  48,  57;  merchants 
of,  315,  360. 

St.  Croix  River,  lumbering  on,  60, 
64-66,  90-91;  forest  fires,  102; 
railway  to,  281,  283;  steamboats 
on,  354. 

St.  Croix  Valley  Exporting  Associa- 
tion, 360. 

St.  Louis,  as  a  market,  27,  75,  85, 
116,  327,  366;  milling  center,  137, 
140;  competition  with,  221;  block- 
ade affects,  272;  steamboat  ter- 
minus, 312,  318,  324,  326,  347,  351, 
355-58,  360;  convention  at,  359; 


Union  Merchants'  Exchange  Re- 
ports, 64,  66,  85,  272,  360,  367. 

St.  Louis  Grain  Association,  360- 
61. 

St.  Paul  (Minn.),  railroad  to,  299, 
361;  conventions  at,  315,  325-27; 
river  port,  316,  318,  320,  347,  350, 
352,  355-59;  Board  of  Trade,  326; 
Report,  277;  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, Report,  361;  Pioneer,  312, 
315,  325-27,  350-52,  356-57. 

Salomon,  Edward,  veto,  255;  mes- 
sages, 272,  309. 

Sauk  County,  beet  sugar  in,  34;  hops, 
38-39,  41;  iron,  116,  141. 

"Sawdust  City."     See  Oshkosh. 

Sawmills,  first  built,  60;  improve- 
ments in,  69-72;  by-products,  78; 
portable,  87;  burned,  101. 

Sawyer,  Philetus,  lumberman,  75; 
buys  mortgages,  268. 

Scandinavians,  in  Wisconsin,  37,  52. 

Schlitz,  Joseph,  brewer,  152,  154. 

Schooners,  on  the  Great  Lakes,  374- 
76. 

Schwalbach,  Matthias,  inventor,  156. 

Secession,  effect  on  banking,  17-18, 
194-95. 

Sevier,  John,  on  free  navigation  of 
Mississippi,  271. 

Shambaugh,  B.  F.,  "Frontier  Land 
Clubs  or  Claim  Associations,"  247. 

Shaw, ,  foreman,  171. 

Shaw,  Daniel,  lumberman,  75. 

Shawano  County,  48;  forest  fires  in, 
103. 

Sheboygan,  manufactures  in,  127, 
147;  labor  union,  172;  lake  port, 
365,  372. 

Sheboygan  Falls,  dairy  industry  at, 
29. 

Sheep,  raised  in  Wisconsin,  20-21. 
See  also  Wool. 

Sherman,  Gen.  William  T.,  at  State 
Fair,  51. 

Shingles,  manufacture  of,  76-78. 


410 


INDEX 


Shinplasters.  See  Currency:  frac- 
tional. 

Ship  Carpenters'  and  Caulkers'  Union, 
169,  175,  178,  181-82. 

Shoemakers.  Sec  Knights  of  St. 
Crispin. 

Sholes,  C.  Latham,  inventor,  155-57. 

Skinner,  E.  W.,  &  Company,  manu- 
facturers, 146;  Sorgho  Hand  Book, 
32. 

Slaughter,  Col.  William  B.,  owner  of 
peat  beds,  121-22. 

Small, ,  Milwaukee  lawyer,  263. 

Smith, ,  miller,  139. 

Smith,  George  B.,  speaker,  339. 

Smith,  Hiram,  promotes  dairy  in- 
terests, 26. 

Snider,  G.  E.,  History  of  the  Taxation 
of  Railway  Corporations  in  Wis- 
consin, 309. 

Sons  of  Vulcan,  at  Bay  View,  174, 
178. 

Sorghum,  attempts  to  raise,  30-33; 
association  for,  51;  mills  for,  145- 
46. 

Soule,  S.  W.,  inventor,  155. 

Sparta,  oil  speculation  at,  118. 

Star-Union  freight  line,  384-85. 

Steamboats,  first  at  St.  Paul,  357; 
described,  345-46;  packet  lines, 
312,  314-15,  325-26,  352-56;  scar- 
city of,  313;  decline  of  use,  352;  rela- 
tion to  railroads,  313-15,  319,  352, 
355,  357-62;  races  by,  346;  pilots 
for,  348;  deckhands  on,  168-69; 
profits  of,  348-51.  See  also  Pro- 
pellers. 

Stennett,  W.  H.,  History  of  the  Chi- 
cago and  North  Western  Railway 
System,  296. 

Stephenson,  Isaac,  lumberman,  75, 
86;  Recollections  of  a  Long  Life,  73, 
339. 

Stevens  Point,  growth,  76;  strike 
near,  165;  railroad  to,  285. 

Steward,  Ira,  labor  advocate,  178. 


Stewart,  Alexander,  lumberman,  75. 

Stillwater  (Minn.),  lumbering  center, 
84. 

Stimson,  Henry,  &  Company,  brokers, 
292-95. 

Stock  watering,  on  Wisconsin  rail- 
roads, 333-35. 

Stone  Cutters'  Union,  182. 

Stout,  A.  L.,  lumberman,  75. 

Strikes,  in  Wisconsin,  163-64,  169, 
173-75,  177,  182-83. 

Strong,  Moses  M.,  manuscripts,  108, 
113;  "Geology  and  Topography  of 
the  Lead  Region,"  113-14. 

Sturgeon  Bay  Ship  Canal,  86;  land 
grant  for,  107. 

Sugar.  See  Beet  sugar.  Maple  sugar, 
and  Sorghum. 

Sugar  River  Valley  Railroad,  282. 

Sumner,  W.  G.,  Andrew  Jackson,  253. 

Superior,  manufactures  at,  140;  rail- 
way to,  284. 

Swiss,  introduce  cheese  manufacture, 
24-25. 

System,  156. 

Tailoresses,  wages  of,  167-68. 
Tailors.     See  Custom   Tailor. 
Tallmadge,  John  T.,  mayor,  179. 
Tanneries,    in    Wisconsin,    79,    133, 

148-50. 
Tariff,  on  wool,  21. 
Taxes,  during  the  Civil  War,  309. 
Tennessee,  bond  issue,  188,  191-95. 
Thompson,  A.  M.,  editor,  248, 
Thompson,  J.  G.,  "Wheat  Growing 

in  Wisconsin,"  285,  319. 
Thorpe,  J.  G.,  lumberman,  75. 
Thwaites,     R.     G.,     "Cyrus     Hall 

McCormick  and  the  Reaper,"  52; 

Wisconsin,  60,  250. 
Timber,   trespass,   104-8.     See  also 

Forests,  and  Lumbering. 
Tinker,  Thomas  C,  labor  organizer, 

184. 
Tobacco,  culture  of,  35-37. 


INDEX 


411 


Toledo  (Ohio),  lake  port,  388. 

Tomah,  railroad  to,  267,  282-83,  295. 

Tomah  &  Lake  St.  Croix  Railroad, 
built,  283;  strike  on,  164. 

Trade,  during  Civil  War  decade, 
220-37. 

Trades  Unions,  organization  of,  162- 
63,  169-72;  cooperative  enter- 
prises, 174-78. 

Train,  George  F.,  letter  cited,  68. 

Transportation,  of  Wisconsin's  ex- 
ports, 29,  79-89;  changes  in  rates, 
308-19,  324,  327;  regulation  of 
rates,  329-43.  See  also  Great 
Lakes,  Mississippi  River,  and  Rail- 
roads. 

Transportation  Routes  to  the  Seaboard, 
359-61,  369,  374,  380-82,  385-86. 

Trempealeau,  a  river  port,  313,  316. 

Trempealeau  County,  48. 

"Trent"  affair,  influences  markets, 
18,  207. 

Trenton  Township,  farming  in,  56. 

Treyser,  Fred,  labor  organizer,  184. 

Troops,  numbers  engaged,  15,  51, 
55,  159,  161;  clothing  for,  20,  170; 
at  Camp  Randall,  50;  return  of, 
56;  lumbermen  enlist,  83;  Germans 
enlist,  153;  printers  enlist,  166; 
vote  in  field,  261. 

Truman  v.  McCoIIum,  254. 

Tugs,  on  the  Great  Lakes,  372,  376. 

Tunnel,  G.  G.,  Statistics  of  Lake  Com- 
merce, 373-74,  376. 

Turner,  F.  J.,  "The  Mississippi 
Valley  in  American  History,"  271. 

Twenty-ninth  Wisconsin  Regiment, 
83. 

Twenty-third  Wisconsin  Regiment, 
83. 

Two  Creeks,  tanneries  at,  149-50. 

Two  Rivers,  forest  fires  near,  102; 
manufactures  at,  146,  149-50. 

Typewriter,  invention  of,  155-57. 

Typographical  Unions,  162,  166,  182- 
84. 


Union  Pacific  Railroad,  built,  62. 

United  States,  foreign  relations,  18, 
207;  railroad  regulation  in,  329-43. 

United  States  Census,  16,  20,  24,  32, 
36,  44,  47,  76,  78,  129,  134,  139, 
155,  227. 

United  States  Commissioner  of  Agri- 
culture, Report,  19,  21,  33,  36,  44, 
49,  54. 

United  States  Commissioner  of 
General  Land  OflTice,  Reports,  48, 
106,  281-83,  285. 

United  States  Congress,  memorials  to, 
16,  21,  326;  House  Executive  Docu- 
ments, 360,  373;  Senate  Reports, 
113,  318,  373. 

United  States  Inland  Waterways 
Commission,  Preliminary  Report, 
318. 

United  States  Internal  Commerce, 
Report,  332,  352. 

United  States  Patent  Office,  Report, 
69,  71,  139,  156. 

United  States  Register  of  the  Treas- 
ury, "Commerce  and  Navigation 
Reports,"  373. 

United  States,  Secretary  of  Treasury, 
Report,  212-13. 

United  States  Statistical  Abstract, 
318. 

United  States  Statutes  at  Large,  153, 
212-14,  267. 

University  of  Wisconsin,  agricultural 
college,  51;  professor,  158;  Bulletin, 
36,  170,  172,  247,  285. 

Usher,  E.  B.,  Wisconsin,  60,  95. 

Van  Kirk,  McGeoch  &  Company, 
packers,  151. 

Van  Brunt  &  Company,  manufac- 
turers, 145-46. 

Vicksburg,  victory  at,  257. 

Virginia,  bond  issue,  188,  191-95. 

Wages,  of  farm  laborers,  55;  of  lum- 
bermen, 108-10;  of  railroad  build- 


412 


INDEX 


Wages — Continued. 

ers,  160-61;  of  women,  166-68;  of 
steamboat  pilots,  347;  advance  of, 
160-62,  173;  payment  of,  164-66. 

Wagons,  manufactured,  79. 

WaFdo,  O.  H.,  cited,  120. 

Wallace,  F.  W.,  labor  organizer,  171. 

Ward,  E.  B.,  manufacturer,  142. 

Washburn,  Cadwallader  C,  lumber- 
man, 75;  miller,  138-39. 

Washington  County  (Minn.),  315. 

Washington  County  (Wis.),  rioting 
in,  265. 

Waterpower,  in  Wisconsin,  128,  130. 

Watertown,  dairymen's  association 
at,  26;  board  of  trade,  28,  30; 
manufactures,  127,  131,  134;  labor 
unions,  163,  172,  174;  Democrat, 
26,  184. 

Waukesha,  labor  union  in,  172;  rail- 
road to,  241. 

Waukesha  County  Democrat,  339. 

Waupaca  County,  48. 

Wausau,  growth,  76;  forest  fires  near, 
102. 

Waushara  County,  48. 

Welland  Canal,  363,  378,  380. 

Wells,  Daniel,  lumberman,  75. 

West.     See  Northwest. 

West  Allis  Corporation,  144. 

West  Virginia,  oil  found  in,  117. 

West  Wisconsin  Railroad,  as  a  lum- 
ber carrier,  87;  building  of,  278, 
361;  leased,  295. 

Western  Monthly,  145. 

Western  Union  Railroad,  purchased, 
299. 

Weyerhauser,  Frederick,  lumberman, 
75,  94. 

Wheat,  importance  of,  15-16,  44, 
54,  276,  279,  364;  yield  of,  in  Wis- 
consin, 16,  19,  36,  43-45,  48,  158; 
milled,  129-40;  transportation 
rates,  311-12;  barges  for,  349; 
elevators,     351,     365-71;     prices. 


17-19,  45-46,  316-18,  327,  360; 
railroad  shipments,  386-89. 

Whitewater,  manufactures  at,  144- 
45. 

Whitney,  Thomas,  address,  365. 

Wilkes,  F.,  letter,  141-42. 

Wilkinson,  James,  on  free  navigation 
of  Mississippi,  271. 

Willey,  0.  S.,  secretary  of  sorghum 
association,  32. 

Winkler,  H.  0.,  A  History  of  the 
Stcde  Lands  of  Wisconsin,  279. 

Winnebago  County,  48;  Press,  133, 
147. 

Winona  (Minn.),  a  river  port,  322, 
359;  railroad  to,  361. 

Winona  &  St.  Peter  Railroad,  built, 
276. 

Winslow,  J.  B.,  Story  of  a  Great 
Court,  252,  257-59,  261. 

Wisconsin,  agriculture  during  Civil 
War  decade,  15-57;  lumbering, 
59-110,  362;  forest  fires,  63,  66, 
101-4;  mining,  111-22;  manufac- 
turing, 123-57;  labor  organiza- 
tions, 158-86;  banking,  187-219; 
trade,  220-37;  railroad  farm  mort- 
gages, 238-70;  railroad  construc- 
tion, 271-307;  antimonopoly  agi- 
tation, 308-28;  railroad  regulation, 
329-43. 

Wisconsin  Academy  of  Sciences, 
Transactions,  301,  304-5,  309. 

Wisconsin  Adjutant  General,  Report, 
56. 

Wisconsin  &  Lake  Superior  Railroad, 
land  grant  to,  280. 

Wisconsin  Bank  Comptroller,  187- 
95,  197,  202-3,  208,  217;  cited, 
190-91;  office  abolished,  219;  Re- 
ports, 188-91,  193-95,  197-98, 
204,  218. 

Wisconsin  Bankers'  Association,  or- 
ganized, 192-93,  195;  calls  con- 
vention, 196-97,  206;  influence, 
204,  206-8,  210-13,  217,  219. 


INDEX 


413 


Wisconsin    Central    Railroad,    built, 
49,  87,  278,  285;  strike  on,  164-65; 
mortgages  for,  244. 
Wisconsin  Cheese  Makers'  Associa- 
tion, Reports,  25-26. 
Wisconsin    Constitution,    210,    336; 
prohibitions  in,  238-39,  257,  270, 
286;     violated,     194-95;     amend- 
ments, 250,  287. 
Wisconsin  Daily  Capital,  120. 
Wisconsin    Dairymen's    Association, 
organized,    26,    28-29;    president, 
25^;  Reports,  24-26,  30. 
Wisconsin  Farmer,  32,  52,  133,  146, 

153-54,  340. 
Wisconsin   Fruit   Growers'    Associa- 
tion, disbands,  50;  reorganizes,  51. 
Wisconsin  General  Laws,  25,  34,  51, 
55,  99-100,  105-6,  111,  188,  190, 
195,  209,  217-18,  235,  237,  250-55, 
267,  277,  280,  287,  294,  305,  342, 
371;  Private  Laws,  92,   267,   277, 
285,  305-6,  315;  Revised  Statutes, 
188,  190,  192. 
Wisconsin   Governor's  Messages  and 
Accompanying  Documents,  31,  35, 
57,    105,    125,    189-90,    192,    208, 
235-37,  244-45,  272,  282,  309. 
Wisconsin  History  Commission,  ac- 
knowledgments to,  9. 
Wisconsin  Law  Reporter,  257. 
Wisconsin   Leather   Company,    149- 

50. 
Wisconsin  legislature,  Assembly 
Journal,  95,  98,  110,  117,  188, 
203,  210,  245,  249,  268,  281,  285, 
287,  294,  305,  331-32,  334,  336, 
339,  341-42;  Blue  Book,  278; 
Legislative  Manual,  104,  255,  257; 
Senate  Journal,  98-99,  111,  117. 
194,  197,  285,  287,  294,  302,  305-6, 
331,  336-37,  339,  342. 
Wisconsin  Lumberman,   64,   66,   69, 

71-72,  75,  84,  107-8,  139. 
Wisconsin   Marine   and   Fire   Insur- 
ance Company,  199. 


Wisconsin  Mirror,  40. 

Wisconsin  Railroad  Commission,  Re- 
port, 244,  274,  279,  290,  319, 
332. 

Wisconsin  Railroad  Farm  Mortgage 
Land  Company,  267-69,  282; 
papers  of,  268. 

Wisconsin  River,  lumbering  on,  60, 
64-66,  88,  90;  rafting,  82,  87,  96; 
forest  fires,  102;  markets,  77. 

Wisconsin  River  Hydraulic  Com- 
pany, incorporated,  96. 

Wisconsin  Secretary  of  State  Report, 
227,  259,  261. 

Wisconsin  State  Agricultural  Society, 
50-52;  experiments,  30;  secretary, 
38,  44,  126;  Transactions,  18-20, 
24,  30-32,  34-36,  38-39,  45,  54, 
72,  77,  82,  126,  142-43,  145-48, 
155,  235,  336. 

Wisconsin  State  Journal,  38,  53,  55, 
57,  66,  101-2,  122,  147,  201,  203-4. 
208,  210,  212,  215,  218,  252,  261, 
265,  327,  336,  338-39,  341,  366-67, 
370,  385;  weekly  edition,  109,  203. 

Wisconsin  State  Register,  40. 

Wisconsin  State  Treasurer,  Reports, 
203. 

Wisconsin  Supreme  Court,  210;  open 
letter  on  bond  issue,  201-2;  deci- 
sions, 247,  251,  253-55,  309;  op- 
position to  repudiation,  257-58; 
history  of,  252,  258-61. 

Wisconsin  University.  See  Univer- 
sity of  Wisconsin. 

Wisconsin  Valley  Railroad,  87,  278. 

Wisconsin  Wool  Growers'  Associa- 
tion, organized,  20,  51,  155;  me- 
morial of,  21. 

Wolf  River,  lumbering  on,  60,  64, 
66,  76,  80,  95,  108,  127,  296;  forest 
fires,  102-3. 

Women,  as  farm  laborers,  55-56;  in 
industry,  166-68,  175,  181. 

Wood  County,  manufactures  in,  79. 

Woodenware,  manufactured,  79. 


414 


INDEX 


Woodman,   Cyrus,   manuscripts,  73, 
106,  113,  208. 

Wool,  demand  for,  20;  prices,  20-21; 
investments  in,  225. 


Woolen  mills,  in  Wisconsin,  155. 
Wyandotte    (Mich.),    iron    market, 
116. 

Zinc,  mined  in  Wisconsin,  114-15. 


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